“I tried to stem the torrent of their strange, absorption, but I could not.  It grew and grew.  And now you see what has happened.  It has been months since one of us has been to the New Camp and all of you, except Peachy and myself, have entirely lost interest in it.  It is not surprising.  It is natural.  I, too, would lose interest if I did not force myself to talk with Billy about it every night of my life.  Lulu said yesterday that it seemed strange to her that, after working together all day, they should want to get together in the Clubhouse at night.  For a long time that seemed strange to me — until I discovered that there is a chain binding them to each other even as there is a chain binding them to us.  And the Bond of Work is stronger than the Bond of Sex because Work is a living, growing thing.”

“In the meantime, we have our work too — the five children.  But it is a little constructive work — not a great one.  For in this beautiful, safe island, there is not much that we can do besides feed them.  And so, here we sit day after day, five women who could once fly, big, strong, full-bodied, teeming with various efficiencies and abilities — wasted.  If we had kept our wings, we could have been of incalculable assistance to them.  Or if we could walk — .”

“But I won’t go further into our situation.  I want to consider Angela’s.”

“You are wondering what all this has to do with the matter of Angela’s flying.  And now I am going to tell you.  Don’t you see if they wait until she is a woman before they cut her wings, she will be in the same case that we are in, unable either to fly or to walk.  Rather would I myself cut her wings to-night and force her to walk.  But on the other hand, should she grow to womanhood with wings, she would be no true mate to a wingless man unless she could also walk.  No, we must see to it that she both flies and walks.  In that case, she will be a perfect mate to the wingless man.  Her strength will not be as great as his — but her facility will be greater.  She will walk well enough to keep by his side; and her flying will supplement his powers.”

“And then — oh, don’t you see it — don’t you see why we must fight — fight — fight for Angela, don’t you see why her wings are a sacred trust with us?  Sometime, there will be born here — — Clara,” she turned her look on Clara’s excited face, “it may be the baby that’s coming to you in the spring — sometime there will be born here a boy with wings.  Then more and more often they will come until there are as many winged men as winged women.  What will become of our girl-children then if their mates fly as well as walk away from them.  There is only one way out.  And there is only one duty before us — to learn to walk that we may teach our daughters to walk — to preserve our daughter’s wings that they may teach their sons to fly.”

“But, Julia,” Peachy exclaimed, after an instant of dead silence.  There was a stir of wonder, flutelike in her voice, a ripple of wonder, flamelike on her face.  “Our feet are too fine, too soft.  Ralph says that mine are only toy feet, that no creature could really get along on them.”