"But you protest that you did it out of kindness, and because you
wanted them to have a real good time. My good Alpha, it is absurd for
a man to argue that he cut off a woman's hands out of kindness. Human
beings are so incredulous, so apt to think evil, that such arguments
somehow fail to carry conviction. I am fairly credulous myself, but
even I decline to accept the plea. And I say that if your conduct was
meant kindly, it is a pity that you weren't born cruel. Cruelty would
have been better. Was it out of kindness that you refused to allow
your youngest to acquire the skill to earn her own living? Was it out
of kindness that you thwarted her instinct and filled her soul with
regret that may be eternal? It was not. I have already indicated, in
speaking of your son, one of the real reasons. Another was that you
took pride in having these purely ornamental and loving creatures
about you, and you would not suffer them to have an interest stronger
than their interest in you, or a function other than the function of
completing your career and illustrating your success in the world. If
the girl was to play the piano, she was to play it in order to perfect
your home and minister to your pleasure and your vanity, and for
naught else. You got what you wanted, and you infamously shut your
eyes to the risks.

"I hear you expostulate that you didn't shut your eyes to the risks,
and that there will always be risks, and that it is impossible to
provide fully against all of them.

"Which is true, or half true, and the truth or half-truth of the
statement only renders your case the blacker, O Alpha! Risks are an
inevitable part of life. They are part of the fine savour and burden
of life, and without the sense of them life is flat and tasteless. And
yet you feigned to your women that risk was eliminated from the magic