The Star in the West

THE HARLOT 113 morality aside with skirt and shirt when opportunity should offer. When Percy fell in love with Molly , we saw how Lady Angela enticed him from her by her maturer wisdom . Utterly false, the social hag of sixty totally eclipses the girl of sixteen ; she backs her knowledge against the latter's innocence , and wins in a canter . So much for morality . A woman is only as old as she feels ; and grey hairs do not count so long as they can be counted ; such was the innocence of our early Victorian grandmothers . Nowadays a woman is as young in manner as she is old in years ; and as for hair ask the coiffeurs . As cats grow cantankerous in old age , so do women , and Angela is a good example of one of the many vicious , crafty, and crabbed old vixens who monopolize society . When she hears Percy murmur words of love to Molly , she hisses : Ah ! if there were a devil to buy souls, Or if I had not sold mine ! Quick bargain , God ! Hell catch the jade ! Blister her fat red cheeks ! Rot her snub nose ! Poison devour her guts ! Wither her fresh clean face with old grey scabs, And venomous ulcers gnaw the baby breasts ! ? Most charitable ! But such is the Kingdom of Society . “ Angela ” is a lovely name (so thinks inexperienced Percy ) , and correspondingly the owner must have a lovely nature ; and when he has discovered what an abyss yawns between “ girl ” and “ village girl ” he throws himself into the arms of the lovely Angela and listens to her murmuring sighs as she stumbles : Ay , love, it is to feel your strength support me ! ( Aside . Will the doctors never catch up with the coiffeurs ? 2 1 3 Ibid . vol. iii , p . 35 . Why Jesus Wept , vol . iii, p . 30 . 1