"They're better than goddesses on pedestals," Pete said. "They're
creatures neither of flesh nor of marble - they're ideals. They're made
of stars, sunlight, moonshine. I believe in treating them like beings of
a higher world."
"I disagree with all of you," Frank said ponderously, "I don't believe
in treating them as if they were pets or dolls, or goddesses on
pedestals or ideals. I believe in treating them like human beings, the
other half of the race. I don't see that they are any better or any
worse than we - they're about the same. Soon after we captured them, you
remember, we entered into an agreement that no one of us would ever let
his wife's wings grow without the consent of all the others. One minute
after I had given my word, I was sorry for it. But you kept your word to
me in the agreement that I forced on you before the capture; and, so, I
shall always keep mine to you. But I regret it more and more as time
goes on. You see I'm so constituted that I can't see anything but
abstract justice. And according to abstract justice we have no right to
hold these women bound to the earth. If the air is their natural
habitat, it is criminal for us to keep them out of it. They're our
equals in every sense - I mean in that they supplement us, as we
supplement them. They've got what we haven't got and we've got what they
haven't got. They can't walk, but they can fly. We can't fly, but we can
walk. It is as though they compelled us, creatures of the earth, to live
in the air all the time. Oh, it's wrong. You'll see it some day."
"I never listened to such sophistry in my life," said Ralph in disgust.
You'll be telling us next," he added sarcastically, that we hadn't any
right to capture them."
"We hadn't," Frank replied promptly. "On reflection, I consider that the
second greatest crime of my existence. But that's done and can't be
wiped out. They own this island just as much as we do. They'd been
coming to it for months before we saw it. They ought to have every kind
of right and freedom and privilege on it that we, have."
"I'd like to hear," Addington said in the high, thin tone of his peevish
disgust, "the evidence that justifies you in saying that. What have they
ever done on this island to put them on an equality with us? Aren't they
our inferiors from every point of view, especially physically?"