Page:Arminell, a social romance (1896).djvu/102

94 But to me it does not seem solved. There the animals are. They are animals—and not bricks."

"They are animals, true, but they must be shaken and shaken together, till all their excrescences are rubbed away, and then they will fit together and find sufficiency of room. That is how marbles are made. Shapeless masses of stone are put in a bag and rattled till all their edges and angles are rattled off."

"What an ark would remain! You complain of some animals crippling others, this scheme of yours would involve a universal mutilation—the animals resolved into undistinguishable, shapeless, uninteresting trunks. The only creature that would come out scatheless would be the slug. All the rest would be levelled down to the condition of that creature—which is a digesting tube, and nothing more." Then Arminell stood up. "It is time for me to be off," she said; "her ladyship will be back from church, and oh! Mr. Saltren, I have interfered with the Psalms and Lessons."