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Reade, Charles, 1814-1884

"A Woman-Hater"


Zoe, in a tearful voice, said, "I am unable to advise you. It is very
hard that any one so deserving should be degraded."
Vizard burst out, "It is harder the world should be so full of
conventional sneaks; and that I was near making one of them. The last
thing we ever think of, in this paltry world, is justice, and it ought to
be the first. Well, for once I've got the power to be just, and just I'll
be, by God! Come, leave off sniveling, you two, and take a lesson in
justice--from a beginner: converts are always the hottest, you know. Miss
Gale, you shall not be driven out of science, and your life and labor
wasted. You shall doctor Barfordshire, and teach it English, too, if any
woman can. This is the programme. I farm two hundred
acres--_vicariously,_ of course. Nobody in England has brains to do
anything _himself._ That weakness is confined to your late father's
country, and they suffer for it by outfighting, outlying, outmaneuvering,
outbullying, and outwitting us whenever we encounter them. Well, the
farmhouse is large. The bailiff has no children. There is a wing
furnished, and not occupied. You shall live there, with the right of
cutting vegetables, roasting chickens, sucking eggs, and riding a couple
of horses off their legs.


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