Cecilia Clutt was an attractive and snooty spinster of thirty-five. She was a person of inherited as well as acquired wealth, and was an astute business woman and amateur of the arts. She did have a streak of stubbornness in her, but seldom revealed it unless she was crossed.
So, the first time she said no, it was hardly noticed. And the second time she said it, it was felt that she did not quite understand the situation. So it was Carmody Overlark, the silky diplomat, who came to reason with her.
"You are the sole hope of the human race," he said to her. "In a way, you are the new Eve."
"I have heard the first one spoken badly of," said Cecilia. "Yet her only fault was that she could be talked into something. I cannot."
"But this is important."
"Not really. If it is our time to disappear, then let us disappear with dignity. What you suggest is without it. It would leave us a little less than human."
"Miss Clutt, this is a world problem. You are only an individual."
"I am not only an individual. There is no such thing as only an individual. If ever a person can be spoken of as only an individual, then humanity has already failed."
"We have tried reason. Now, by special emergency legislation, we are empowered to employ compulsion."
"We will see. I always did enjoy a good fight."