“O miseris hominorum mentas!” exclaimed that lady, tragically. “O pectorae caecae!”
“You hear her, sir?” continued Mr. Sagittarius. “You grasp her meaning?”
“I do hear certainly,” said the Prophet, beginning to feel that he really must rub up his classics.
“She helps Capricornus, sir, of an evening. She assists him in his Latin. Madame is a lady of deep education, sir.”
“Quite so. But—”
“There can be no going back, sir,” continued Mr. Sagittarius. “Can there, Madame?”
“No human creature can go back,” said Madame Sagittarius. “Such is the natural law as exemplified by the great Charles Darwin in his Vegetable Mould and Silkworms. No human creature can go back. Least of all this gentleman. He must go forward and we with him.”
The Prophet began to feel uncomfortable.
“But—” he said.
“There is no such word as ‘but’ in my dictionary,” retorted the lady.