I said that everyone on Nepenthe
treated Miss Wilberforce as a pariah. That was a mistake. I ought to
have allowed for one exception--our admirable judge! It strikes me as
significant that an official who is bound to her by no ties of
blood-relationship or nationality and who enjoys, moreover, a
reputation--however undeserved--for harshness, should be the one person
on Nepenthe to stretch a point in her favour; the one person who
extends to her the hand of friendship, whose heart goes out in sympathy
with her sad case. Significant, and not altogether creditable to us,
her compatriots. Now who, I wonder, is the friend of man, the modern
Prometheus; you who incarcerate her, or this alien lawyer who sets her
free? To be perfectly frank, I find your attitude contrasts
unfavourably with his own. You are the rigorists, the harsh ones. He is
the humanitarian. Yes, gentlemen! In my humble opinion there is not a
shadow of a doubt about it. Signor Malipizzo is the true
philanthropist. . . ."
The deputation, wending to the market-place rather hurriedly in order
to take their places in the funeral cortege, said to themselves:
"We ought to have waited.
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