"
Maria was bewildered, but nor daunted yet. "Pardon me," she pleaded; "I
fear I don't quite understand you."
"Then there are two of us puzzled," the duenna remarked. _"I_ don't
understand _you._ I shan't go into that house. A Christian can't be
expected to care about beasts--but right is right all the world over.
Because a monkey is a nasty creature (as I have heard, not even good to
eat when he's dead), that's no reason for taking him out of his own
country and putting him into a cage. If we are to see creatures in
prison, let's see creatures who have deserved it--men and women, rogues
and sluts. The monkeys haven't deserved it. Go in--I'll wait for you at
the door."
Setting her bitterest emphasis on this protest, which expressed
inveterate hostility to Maria (using compassion for caged animals as
the readiest means at hand), Teresa seated herself in triumph on the
nearest bench.
A young person, possessed of no more than ordinary knowledge, might
have left the old woman to enjoy the privilege of saying the last word.
Miss Minerva's pupil, exuding information as it were at every pore in
her skin, had been rudely dried up at a moment's notice. Even earthly
perfection has its weak places within reach. Maria lost her temper.
"You will allow me to remind you," she said, "that intelligent
curiosity leads us to study the habits of animals that are new to us.
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