The Man in Possession — page 169: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

164 THE MAN IN POSSESSION. posed. If she had kept silence hitherto it had only been for the same reason that 1s supposed to actuate our ‘‘ Darwin-accredited” ancestry—viz., because she ‘‘thought the more.” Once having secured attention, she launched forth on the subject of the people’s wrongs with an elo- quence and an assurance that astonished her hearers. She did worse than pour contempt on the ‘‘ Dames ” and their order. She made them appear ridiculous. ‘Tf you dislike the odour of a sick-room,” she said, “you can go about with a sprinkler of rose-water, to odorise it, but if you treat the people in a similar manner you will find that the foul air and bad drain- age of their sick-chambers defy all your essences and attempts at fumigation. You play with the wrongs and miseries of your city as a child plays with a lion- cub. The child forgets that one day the talons may rend him limb from limb. And you forget that wrong has sharp talons also, and the longer the patience the greater the strength.” She rose as she finished speaking. Her face was flushed, she had grown enthusiastic, and was quite forgetful of her astonished and indignant audience. Lady Westmoreland felt that such an attack as this could not be allowed to pass unnoticed. So in her coldest and haughtiest voice she said, ‘‘Our young Irish friend has strong Radical prejudices, I perceive. But she can scarcely presume to judge of the society that rules the people and keeps it in its place. Of course caste prejudice is very strong, so we must not be too hard on her.” Kate only smiled. ‘‘I assure you,” she said, ‘‘that COMicloe (Sri C(O)