SaD: Not The Eight-Man
May. 2nd, 2011 08:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
avevale_intelligencer"Now I marvel, Mr Dashet," said his wife, "that you can sit there reading, when you know very well that we have no less than five daughters, all of marriageable age, and not on the whole ill-favoured."
"The fact, madam," said Mr Dashet peaceably, "while affording me no small measure of gratification, does not impinge unduly upon my inner tranquility."
"But do you not feel that it is time for them to chuse the men they shall marry?"
"Indeed, they are very much underfoot, in the library and the garden and any where a man may seek an hour or two of repose; but for my part, I rejoice in their presence. Only consider, my dear Mrs Dashet, how different our lives might have been. If, for instance, the government had chosen to finance the late war by borrowing, at ruinous interest, some thirty or forty millions from private banks; and if it had then foolishly sought to repay that debt by increasing taxes, removing vast amounts of money from circulation, compelling millions of people and hundreds of businesses to contract private debt in their turn, and reducing all but the very wealthiest to virtual penury. Why, we might have been forced to counsel our dear girls to seek for husbands, not on the basis of the heart's affections, but purely--if I may so misuse the word--for financial security and to lessen the drain on our own resources; a course which would have gone to my heart most sorely. How fortunate we are that, instead, the leaders of our nation elected to reflect the growing material prosperity of these islands by placing our economy on a firm footing of solid credit, thus ensuring its stability for the foreseeable future and enabling us all to continue to enjoy the fruits of our labours and to plan with assurance for whatever may come, and incidentally freeing our daughters to pursue whatever course of life seems most good to them, whether it include marriage or no."
"I confess, my dear," rejoined his wife, "I have not the least idea what you are talking about; for certainly nothing could stand in the way of Mary's ambition to be a great scientist, nor Lizzy's destined fame as a novelist, Jane's desire to travel and explore all sorts of benighted foreign countries, Lydia's yearning to go on the stage, nor yet Kitty's determination to become an astronaut, whatever that may be; nothing, I say, unless their husbands' wishes be set in opposition: which is why I repeat, Mr Dashet, that we must bestir ourselves and find them husbands, and that as soon as may be. For it is a truth universally acknowledged that a young woman of wayward inclinations and in possession of sufficient fortune to indulge them must be in want of a husband to keep her in check."
To this Mr Dashet contented himself with a faint, responsive murmur, and retired behind his book once again; and Mrs Dashet set about her plans with a will.
[Strictly speaking a snippet, not a story, but it was what came; will it do?]
"The fact, madam," said Mr Dashet peaceably, "while affording me no small measure of gratification, does not impinge unduly upon my inner tranquility."
"But do you not feel that it is time for them to chuse the men they shall marry?"
"Indeed, they are very much underfoot, in the library and the garden and any where a man may seek an hour or two of repose; but for my part, I rejoice in their presence. Only consider, my dear Mrs Dashet, how different our lives might have been. If, for instance, the government had chosen to finance the late war by borrowing, at ruinous interest, some thirty or forty millions from private banks; and if it had then foolishly sought to repay that debt by increasing taxes, removing vast amounts of money from circulation, compelling millions of people and hundreds of businesses to contract private debt in their turn, and reducing all but the very wealthiest to virtual penury. Why, we might have been forced to counsel our dear girls to seek for husbands, not on the basis of the heart's affections, but purely--if I may so misuse the word--for financial security and to lessen the drain on our own resources; a course which would have gone to my heart most sorely. How fortunate we are that, instead, the leaders of our nation elected to reflect the growing material prosperity of these islands by placing our economy on a firm footing of solid credit, thus ensuring its stability for the foreseeable future and enabling us all to continue to enjoy the fruits of our labours and to plan with assurance for whatever may come, and incidentally freeing our daughters to pursue whatever course of life seems most good to them, whether it include marriage or no."
"I confess, my dear," rejoined his wife, "I have not the least idea what you are talking about; for certainly nothing could stand in the way of Mary's ambition to be a great scientist, nor Lizzy's destined fame as a novelist, Jane's desire to travel and explore all sorts of benighted foreign countries, Lydia's yearning to go on the stage, nor yet Kitty's determination to become an astronaut, whatever that may be; nothing, I say, unless their husbands' wishes be set in opposition: which is why I repeat, Mr Dashet, that we must bestir ourselves and find them husbands, and that as soon as may be. For it is a truth universally acknowledged that a young woman of wayward inclinations and in possession of sufficient fortune to indulge them must be in want of a husband to keep her in check."
To this Mr Dashet contented himself with a faint, responsive murmur, and retired behind his book once again; and Mrs Dashet set about her plans with a will.
[Strictly speaking a snippet, not a story, but it was what came; will it do?]
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Date: 2011-05-05 08:29 pm (UTC)It gave me a welcome chortle, anyway. =:o}