"
"I said more than I intended," she answered; "I always do. It was
Tourgenieff, was it not, who said that the age of talkers must precede
the age of practical reformers? I seem to have been born in the age of
talkers. But I shall not say much more. Last night I did not really
_intend_ to say anything. You led me on. But I _do_ want to make their
hearts burn within them, and if I succeed, then I shall not care about
the offence. An English-woman is nothing if she is not patriotic. She
will not bear the humiliation, if she is made to see that she is
really no better, with all her opportunities, than a much- despised
Chinese. She would not like the contempt the women of that nation feel
for her if she were made to acknowledge the truth--that she deserved
it. And so much depends on our women now. There are plenty of people,
you know, who believe that no nation can get beyond a certain point of
prosperity, and that when it reaches that point it cannot stay there,
but must begin to go down again; and they say that the English nation
has now reached its extreme point. They compare it with Rome in the
days which immediately preceded her decline and fall--when men ceased
to be brave and self-denying, and became idle, luxurious, and
effeminate; and women traded on their weakness, and made light of
their evil deeds.
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