Everyone is too busy keeping alive."
"Poor old women carrying loads big enough for mules," said Miss
Seyffert.
"Little children working like slaves," said Miss Grammont.
"And everybody begging. Even the people at work by the roadside. Who
ought to be getting wages--sufficient...."
"Begging--from foreigners--is just a sport in Italy," said Sir Richmond.
"It doesn't imply want. But I agree that a large part of Italy is
frightfully overpopulated. The whole world is. Don't you think so,
Martineau?"
"Well--yes--for its present social organization."
"For any social organization," said Sir Richmond.
"I've no doubt of it," said Miss Seyffert, and added amazingly: "I'm out
for Birth Control all the time."
A brief but active pause ensued. Dr. Martineau in a state of sudden
distress attempted to drink out of a cold and empty coffee cup.
"The world swarms with cramped and undeveloped lives," said Sir
Richmond. "Which amount to nothing. Which do not even represent
happiness. And which help to use up the resources, the fuel and surplus
energy of the world."
"I suppose they have a sort of liking for their lives," Miss Grammont
reflected.
"Does that matter? They do nothing to carry life on. They are just vain
repetitions--imperfect dreary, blurred repetitions of one common life.
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