Yet if the meanest screw
fails in its task, the proper working of the whole is imperilled."
It was impossible to combine the image of a lean black widow, gazing out
of her window, and longing for some one to talk to, with the image of a
vast machine, such as one sees at South Kensington, thumping, thumping,
thumping. The attempt at communication had been a failure.
"We don't seem to understand each other," she said.
"Shall I say something that will make you very angry?" he replied.
"It won't," said Rachel.
"Well, then; no woman has what I may call the political instinct. You
have very great virtues; I am the first, I hope, to admit that; but I
have never met a woman who even saw what is meant by statesmanship. I am
going to make you still more angry. I hope that I never shall meet such
a woman. Now, Miss Vinrace, are we enemies for life?"
Vanity, irritation, and a thrusting desire to be understood, urged her
to make another attempt.
"Under the streets, in the sewers, in the wires, in the telephones,
there is something alive; is that what you mean? In things like
dust-carts, and men mending roads? You feel that all the time when you
walk about London, and when you turn on a tap and the water comes?"
"Certainly," said Richard. "I understand you to mean that the whole of
modern society is based upon cooperative effort.
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