" "And now, Mrs.
Lee," he continued, with increasing seriousness of tone; "I want
your advice; what shall I do?"
Even this half revelation of the meanness which distorted politics;
this one-sided view of human nature in its naked deformity playing
pranks with the interests of forty million people, disgusted and
depressed Madeleine's mind. Ratclife spared her nothing except
the exposure of his own moral sores. He carefully called her
attention to every leprous taint upon his neighbours' persons, to
every rag in their foul clothing, to every slimy and fetid pool that
lay beside their path. It was his way of bringing his own qualities
into relief. He meant that she should go hand in hand with him
through the brimstone lake, and the more repulsive it seemed to
her, the more overwhelming would his superiority become. He
meant to destroy those doubts of his character which Carrington
was so carefully fostering, to rouse her sympathy, to stimulate her
feminine sense of self-sacrifice.
When he asked this question she looked up at him with an
expression of indignant pride, as she spoke:
"I say again, Mr. Ratcliffe, what I said once before. Do whatever is
most for the public good."
"And what is most for the public good?"
Madeleine half opened her mouth to reply, then hesitated, and
stared silently into the fire before her. What was indeed most for
the public good?
Where did the public good enter at all into this maze of personal
intrigue, this wilderness of stunted natures where no straight road
was to be found, but only the tortuous and aimless tracks of beasts
and things that crawl?
Where was she to look for a principle to guide, an ideal to set up
and to point at?
Ratcliffe resumed his appeal, and his manner was more serious
than ever.
Pages:
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138