joke! And not a person in all history has ever contributed a practical idea as to the making of him. Some people think health does it, some think education, some think the Bible, some think matching a tall fair man with a short dark woman, some think breeding, some think free love. And what is the result of all those theories? The same uncertainty everywhere. And often with the more breeding there is the poorest result, and with the more chance the better. Out of nowhere comes a Lincoln and out of aristocrats an idiot!”
He dropped his head on to his knees a moment.
“And then when you get the best that we can do, it is a specimen tragically fragile and incomplete, so easily maimed and broken, and so pathetically helpless with his own kind. Numbers of our cleverest men can do wonders with anything but themselves. Men who can paint splendid pictures are often dirty, offensive, bedraggled human beings eternally suffering from indigestion, men who can compose glorious music are half mad and full of childish vanity, men who can write great books are mean-spirited, nervous persons who fly into a rage at the sight of one man’s adverse opinion, men who can lead armies to victory are afraid of their mothers-in-law, men who can build magnificent bridges and govern empires are putty in the hands of their mistresses ———”
Valerie laughed out, throwing up her head.
“Well, isn’t it a spectacle?” he demanded, almost fiercely.
“Yes, it is.”
“Do you think there’s any system at the back of it all?”
“I feel there ought to be. But I don’t know.”
“I get so tired thinking about it,” he said, drooping again.
