"There's not much good in thinking of it nowIt was
unfortunate, by the way, that my mother had me called Castalia
"Oh, Castalia, your mother--" I was beginning when she reached for the
mustard pot
"No, no, no," she said, shaking her head"If you'd been a chaste woman
yourself you would have screamed at the sight of me--instead of which you
rushed across the room and took me in your armsWe are
neither of us chaste So we went on talking
Meanwhile the room was filling up, for it was the day appointed to
discuss the results of our observationsEveryone, I thought, felt as I
did about CastaliaThey kissed her and said how glad they were to see
her againAt length, when we were all assembled, Jane rose and said that
it was time to beginShe began by saying that we had now asked questions
for over five years, and that though the results were bound to be
inconclusive--here Castalia nudged me and whispered that she was not so
sure about thatThen she got up, and, interrupting Jane in the middle of
a sentence, said:
"Before you say any
necklace chanel more, I want to know--am I to stay in the room?
Because," she added, "I have to confess that I am an impure woman
Everyone looked at her in astonishment
"You are going to have a baby?" asked Jane
She nodded her head
It was extraordinary to see the different expressions on their facesA
sort of hum went through the room, in which I could catch the words
"impure," "baby," "Castalia," and so onJane, who was herself
considerably moved, put it to us:
"Shall she go? Is she impure?"
Such a roar filled the room as might have been heard in the street
outside
"No! No! No! Let her stay! Impure? Fiddlesticks!" Yet I fancied that some
of the youngest, girls of nineteen or twenty, held back as if overcome
with shynessThen we all came about her and began asking questions, and
at last I saw one of the youngest, who had kept in the background,
approach shyly and say to her:
"What is chastity then? I mean is it good, or is it bad, or is it nothing
at all?" She replied so low that I could not catch what she said
"You know I was
tiffany heart tag shocked," said another, "for at least ten minutes
"In my opinion," said Poll, who was growing crusty from always reading in
the London Library, "chastity is nothing but ignorance--a most
discreditable state of mindWe should admit only the unchaste to our
societyI vote that Castalia shall be our President
This was violently disputed
"It is as unfair to brand women with chastity as with unchastity," said
Poll"Some of us haven't the opportunity eitherMoreover, I don't
believe Cassy herself maintains that she acted as she did from a pure
love of knowledge
"He is only twenty-one and divinely beautiful," said Cassy, with a
ravishing gesture
"I move," said Helen, "that no one be allowed to talk of chastity or
unchastity save those who are in love
"Oh, bother," said Judith, who had been enquiring into scientific
matters, "I'm not in love and I'm longing to explain my measures for
dispensing with prostitutes and fertilizing virgins by Act of
Parliament
She went on to tell us of an invention of hers to be erected at
paolo gucci women's watches Tube
stations and other public resorts, which, upon payment of a small fee,
would safeguard the nation's health, accommodate its sons, and relieve
its daughtersThen she had contrived a method of preserving in sealed
tubes the germs of future Lord Chancellors "or poets or painters or
musicians," she went on, "supposing, that is to say, that these breeds
are not extinct, and that women still wish to bear children--"
"Of course we wish to bear children!" cried Castalia, impatientlyJane
rapped the table
"That is the very point we are met to consider," she said"For five
years we have been trying to find out whether we are justified in
continuing the human raceCastalia has anticipated our decisionBut it
remains for the rest of us to make up our minds
Here one after another of our messengers rose and delivered their
reportsThe marvels of civilisation far exceeded our expectations, and,
as we learnt for the first time how man flies in the air, talks across
space, penetrates to the heart of an atom, and embraces the universe in
his
cartier roadster replica speculations, a murmur of admiration burst from our lips
"We are proud," we cried, "that our mothers sacrificed their youth in
such a cause as this!" Castalia, who had been listening intently, looked
prouder than all the restThen Jane reminded us that we had still much
to learn, and Castalia begged us to make hasteOn we went through a vast
tangle of statisticsWe learnt that England has a population of so many
millions, and that such and such a proportion of them is constantly
hungry and in prison