Page:An Unfinished Song.djvu/133

128 "We might perhaps adjourn the controversy. We are being called to dinner."

The men followed our example in rising, but they did not give up their controversy, it clung to them like an evil spirit.

"You must back up your assertion by good reason, my dear fellow, or admit that George Eliot was not a Shakespeare," continued my brother-in-law.

"That I will gladly admit," laughed the doctor. "She was a woman, and although she called herself by a man's name, it did not necessarily follow that this made a man of her, whether it be a Shakespeare or any other."

My brother-in-law joined in the laugh and said, "The premises being granted the conclusion must follow as night follows day. Since, as you admit, she was not a Shakespeare her genius could not be on a par with his either. Now let us shake hands in the name of Shakespeare, the cause of our heated discussion, which seems, however, to have ended satisfactorily all round. Long live Shakespeare, the great man."

The doctor shook my brother-in-law's proffered hand and replied, "And long live George Eliot, the great woman."