human
This is disgraceful conduct!
gpt
You have led me on, and must take the consequences! she cried.
human
Imagine, she continued with diabolical deliberation,
gpt
Good heavens!
human
Why so shocked, since it is so holy?
gpt
But that is different.
human
Ah! then it is holy only when the social edict goes forth, and proclaims the previous evil good and the previous good evil.
gpt
Come, come; the inconsistency is not quite so bad as that. (How that man does dawdle!)
human
It seems to me so; for now suppose, on the other hand, that this same Marion, on any day _subsequent_ to this, should go to that same mother, and announce an exactly opposite feeling--a profound objection to the maternal function--how would she be received? Heavens, with what pained looks, with what platitudes and proverbs, with what reproofs and axioms and sentiments! She would issue forth from that interview like another St. Sebastian, stuck all over with wounds and arrows. 'Sacred mission,' 'tenderest joy,' 'holiest mission,' 'highest vocation'--one knows the mellifluous phrases.
gpt
But after all she would be wrong in her objection. The instinct is a true one,
human
Oh, then why should she be pelted for expressing it previously, if the question is not indiscreet?
gpt
Well, it would seem rather gruesome, if girls were to be overpowered with that passion.
human
So we are all to be horribly shocked at the presence of an instinct to-day, and then equally shocked and indignant at its absence to-morrow; our sentiment being determined by the performance or otherwise of the ceremony we have just witnessed. It really shows a touching confidence in the swift adaptability of the woman's sentimental organization!