Page:The Blind Bow-Boy (IA blindbowboy00vanv).pdf/87

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from her. Everything will be locked to her soon.

Would you smoke a cigarette in Gramercy Park? asked Harold, as they stepped into the car.

Sit in front with the chauffeur, Harold, she directed. John, you and Paul sit with me. Bunny, take the strapontin.

They followed her instructions, and the Rolls-Royce swung out into the street and turned down Irving Place.

I wouldn't want to: Campaspe at last found time to reply to Harold's question. Amy is trying too hard to fight the world, to soften the world's corners, instead of softening her own. In the end, of course, martyrdom is waiting for her. I have no respect for martyrs. Any one who is strong enough shapes the world to his own purposes, but he doesn't do it roughly; he accomplishes his object in just the way that any woman you know gets anything she wants out of her husband . . . by appearing to be in sympathy with those who oppose him. Conform externally with the world's demands and you will get anything you desire in life. By a process of erosion you can dig a hole in two years through public opinion that it would take you two centuries to knock through. It is just as great a mistake to reject violently ideas that do not appeal to us. Rejection implies labour, interest, even fear. Indifference is the purer method. Indifference rids one of cause and effect simultaneously. . . . The world—she appeared to be in a kind of revery—is