They mounted, and rode on in silence, through the sunlight and
the heather. Both were extremely uncomfortable and disappointed.
She was pale, divided between fear and anger. She perceived she
was in a scrape, and tried in vain to think of a way of escape.
Only one tangible thing would keep in her mind, try as she would
to ignore it. That was the quite irrelevant fact that his head
was singularly like an albino cocoanut. He, too, felt thwarted.
He felt that this romantic business of seduction was, after all,
unexpectedly tame. But this was only the beginning. At any rate,
every day she spent with him was a day gained. Perhaps things
looked worse than they were; that was some consolation.
OF THE ARTIFICIAL IN MAN, AND OF THE ZEITGEIST
XVI
You have seen these two young people--Bechamel, by-the-bye, is
the man's name, and the girl's is Jessie Milton--from the
outside; you have heard them talking; they ride now side by side
(but not too close together, and in an uneasy silence) towards
Haslemere; and this chapter will concern itself with those
curious little council chambers inside their skulls, where their
motives are in session and their acts are considered and passed.
But first a word concerning wigs and false teeth. Some jester,
enlarging upon the increase of bald heads and purblind people,
has deduced a wonderful future for the children of men. Man, he
said, was nowadays a hairless creature by forty or fifty, and for
hair we gave him a wig; shrivelled, and we padded him; toothless,
and lo! false teeth set in gold.
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