DOI article:
Cross, Victoria: Theodora: a fragment
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21805#0185
By Victoria Cross 181
ficially, we had not strayed off the legitimate ground of mere
society nothings, whatever we might feel lay beneath them.
And Theodora was trained thoroughly in the ways of fashion.
The next second she leant back in her chair, saying lightly,
a A false, absurd, and unnatural god ; it is the greatest error to
strive after the impossible; it merely prevents you accomplishing
the possible. Gods like these,” and she indicated the abominable
squint-eyed Venus, “are merely natural instincts personified, and
one may well call them gods since they are invincible. Don’t
you remember the fearful punishments that the Greeks represented
as overtaking mortals who dared to resist nature’s laws, that they
chose to individualise as their gods ? You remember the fate of
Hippolytus who tried to disdain Venus, of Pentheus who tried to
subdue Bacchus ? These two plays teach the immortal lesson
that if you have the presumption to try to be greater than nature
she will in the end take a terrible revenge. The most we can do
is to guide her. You can never be her conqueror. Consider
yourself fortunate if she allows you to be her charioteer.”
It was all said very lightly and jestingly, but at the last phrase
there was a flash in her eye, directed upon me—yes, me—as if
she read down into my inner soul, and it sent the blood to my
face.
As the last word left her lips, she stretched out her hand and
deliberately took my ring from the head of Shiva, put it above her
own diamonds on the other idol, and laid the god I had chosen,
the god of austerity and mortification, prostrate on its face, at the
feet of the leering Venus.
Then, without troubling to find a transition phrase, she got up
and said, “ I am going to look at that Persian carpet.”
It had all taken but a few seconds ; the next minute we were
over by the carpet, Standing in front of it and admiring its hues in
the
ficially, we had not strayed off the legitimate ground of mere
society nothings, whatever we might feel lay beneath them.
And Theodora was trained thoroughly in the ways of fashion.
The next second she leant back in her chair, saying lightly,
a A false, absurd, and unnatural god ; it is the greatest error to
strive after the impossible; it merely prevents you accomplishing
the possible. Gods like these,” and she indicated the abominable
squint-eyed Venus, “are merely natural instincts personified, and
one may well call them gods since they are invincible. Don’t
you remember the fearful punishments that the Greeks represented
as overtaking mortals who dared to resist nature’s laws, that they
chose to individualise as their gods ? You remember the fate of
Hippolytus who tried to disdain Venus, of Pentheus who tried to
subdue Bacchus ? These two plays teach the immortal lesson
that if you have the presumption to try to be greater than nature
she will in the end take a terrible revenge. The most we can do
is to guide her. You can never be her conqueror. Consider
yourself fortunate if she allows you to be her charioteer.”
It was all said very lightly and jestingly, but at the last phrase
there was a flash in her eye, directed upon me—yes, me—as if
she read down into my inner soul, and it sent the blood to my
face.
As the last word left her lips, she stretched out her hand and
deliberately took my ring from the head of Shiva, put it above her
own diamonds on the other idol, and laid the god I had chosen,
the god of austerity and mortification, prostrate on its face, at the
feet of the leering Venus.
Then, without troubling to find a transition phrase, she got up
and said, “ I am going to look at that Persian carpet.”
It had all taken but a few seconds ; the next minute we were
over by the carpet, Standing in front of it and admiring its hues in
the