Page:The Great Secret.djvu/125

Rh up, with land-locked harbourage and wide fjords reaching from the ocean inland. It was a wild and picturesque country, like the northern parts of Scotland or Norway, promising fish in the sea, with seals, sea-lions, sea-leopards and other war-like game, with birds in plenty. All the savage required to exist here were weapons, skill and fuel. Perhaps that might be found also with the cultivated science of the doctor, the brute strength of Dennis, the vitality of Anatole, and the tigerish unrest of those hitherto society women. They were vicious and depraved in their tastes, but, as women mostly are, in spite of their affectations, they were healthy animals, and fitter for hardship than even the men, and likely to be longer lived.

A woman can exist on less than a man; her digestion is better under control. She is soft in texture, yet she can fast longer and endure more in reality than man, although she must pretend to be more easily tired—that is her affectation. In a savage state she becomes without an effort the beast of burden; even in a civilised state she can endure more nerve fag than three men. The horse is a powerful animal for a short pull, but he requires frequent rests and steady feeding. The ass can do much more on less fodder, with a little encouragement. Man is the horse, and woman is the ass, patient and enduring in spite of her caprices and pretences, longer lived and not so docile unless humoured, yet as brainful if of a less humorous character. She is humorous also. The ass is the most humorous of animals, and the most instructive, only, like woman, it keeps its humour to itself and will not utilise it for the sake of others. The horse knows what is expected and does it, as far as it can. The ass does the reverse, and glories in her perverseness. Yet both horse and ass are keenly