The Daughters of Danaus | Page 9

as usual, of that unfortunate Mrs. Gordon!" cried
Ernest.
"Of her, and the rest of the average, typical sort of people that I know,"
Hadria admitted. "I wish to heaven I had a wider knowledge to speak
from."
"If one is to believe what one hears and reads," said Algitha, "life must
be full of sorrow indeed."
"But putting aside the big sorrows," said her sister, "the ordinary every
day existence that would be called prosperous, seems to me to be dull
and stupid to a tragic extent."
"The Gordons of Drumgarran once more! I confess I can't see anything
particularly tragic there," observed Fred, whose memory recalled troops
of stalwart young persons in flannels, engaged for hours, in sending a
ball from one side of a net to the other.
"It is more than tragic; it is disgusting!" cried Hadria with a shiver.
Algitha drew herself together. She turned to her eldest brother.
"Look here, Ernest; you said just now that girls were shielded from the
realities of life. Yet Mrs. Gordon was handed over by her protectors,
when she was little more than a school-girl, without knowledge,
without any sort of resource or power of facing destiny, to--well, to the
hateful realities of the life that she has led now for over twenty years.
There is nothing to win general sympathy in this case, for Mr. Gordon
is good and kind; but oh, think of the existence that a 'protected,'
carefully brought-up girl may be launched into, before she knows what
she is pledged to, or what her ideas of life may be! If that is what you

call protection, for heaven's sake let us remain defenceless."
Fred and Ernest accused their elder sister of having been converted by
Hadria. Algitha, honest and courageous in big things and in small, at
once acknowledged the source of her ideas. Not so long ago, Algitha
had differed from the daughters of the neighbouring houses, rather in
force of character than in sentiment.
She had followed the usual aims with unusual success, giving
unalloyed satisfaction to her proud mother. Algitha had taken it as a
matter of course that she would some day marry, and have a house of
her own to reign in. A home, not a husband, was the important matter,
and Algitha had trusted to her attractions to make a good marriage; that
is, to obtain extensive regions for her activities. She craved a roomy
stage for her drama, and obviously there was only one method of
obtaining it, and even that method was but dubious. But Hadria had
undermined this matter of fact, take-things-as-you-find-them view, and
set her sister's pride on the track. That master-passion once aroused in
the new direction, Algitha was ready to defend her dignity as a woman,
and as a human being, to the death. Hadria felt as a magician might feel,
who has conjured up spirits henceforth beyond his control; for
obviously, her sister's whole life would be altered by this change of
sentiment, and, alas, her mother's hopes must be disappointed. The laird
of Clarenoc--a fine property, of which Algitha might have been
mistress--had received polite discouragement, much to his surprise and
that of the neighbourhood. Even Ernest, who was by no means worldly,
questioned the wisdom of his sister's decision; for the laird of Clarenoc
was a good fellow, and after all, let them talk as they liked, what was to
become of a girl unless she married? This morning's conversation
therefore touched closely on burning topics.
"Mrs. Gordon's people meant it for the best, I suppose," Ernest
observed, "when they married her to a good man with a fine property."
"That is just the ghastly part of it!" cried Hadria; "from ferocious
enemies a girl might defend herself, but what is she to do against the
united efforts of devoted friends?"

"I don't suppose Mrs. Gordon is aware that she is so ill-used!"
"Another gruesome circumstance!" cried Hadria, with a half laugh; "for
that only proves that her life has dulled her self-respect, and destroyed
her pride."
"But, my dear, every woman is in the same predicament, if predicament
it be!"
"What a consolation!" Hadria exclaimed, "all the foxes have lost their
tails!"
"It may be illogical, but people generally are immensely comforted by
that circumstance."
The conversation waxed warmer and more personal. Fred took a
conservative view of the question. He thought that there were instincts
implanted by Nature, which inspired Mrs. Gordon with a yearning for
exactly the sort of existence that fate had assigned to her. Algitha, who
had been the recipient of that lady's tragic confidences, broke into a
shout of laughter.
"Well, Harold Wilkins says----"
This name was also greeted with a yell of derision.
"I don't see why you girls always scoff so at Harold