Chapter 8: The Girls of Herland
At last Terry's ambition was realized. We were invited, always courteously and with free choice on our part, to address general audiences and classes of girls.
I remember the first time--and how careful we were about
our clothes, and our amateur barbering. Terry, in particular, was
fussy to a degree about the cut of his beard, and so critical of our
combined efforts, that we handed him the shears and told him
to please himself. We began to rather prize those beards of ours; they were almost our sole distinction among those tall and sturdy women, with their cropped hair and sexless costume. Being offered a wide selection of garments, we had chosen according to our personal taste, and were surprised to find, on meeting large audiences, that we were the most highly decorated, especially Terry.
He was a very impressive figure, his strong features softened
by the somewhat longer hair--though he made me trim it as
closely as I knew how; and he wore his richly embroidered tunic
with its broad, loose girdle with quite a Henry V air. Jeff looked
more like--well, like a Huguenot Lover; and I don't know what
I looked like, only that I felt very comfortable. When I got back
to our own padded armor and its starched borders I realized with
acute regret how comfortable were those Herland clothes.
We scanned that audience, looking for the three bright faces
we knew; but they were not to be seen. Just a multitude of girls: quiet, eager, watchful, all eyes and ears to listen and learn.
We had been urged to give, as fully as we cared to, a sort of
synopsis of world history, in brief, and to answer questions.
"We are so utterly ignorant, you see," Moadine had
explained to us. "We know nothing but such science as we have
worked out for ourselves, just the brain work of one small half-
country; and you, we gather, have helped one another all over
the globe, sharing your discoveries, pooling your progress. How wonderful, how supremely beautiful your civilization must be!"
Somel gave a further suggestion.
"You do not have to begin all over again, as you did with us. We have made a sort of digest of what we have learned from you, and it has been eagerly absorbed, all over the country. Perhaps you would like to see our outline?"
We were eager to see it, and deeply impressed. To us, at first, these women, unavoidably ignorant of what to us was the basic commonplace of knowledge, had seemed on the plane of children, or of savages. What we had been forced to admit, with growing acquaintance, was that they were ignorant as Plato and Aristotle were, but with a highly developed mentality quite comparable to that of Ancient Greece.
Far be it from me to lumber these pages with an account of
what we so imperfectly strove to teach them. The memorable fact
is what they taught us, or some faint glimpse of it. And at
present, our major interest was not at all in the subject matter of
our talk, but in the audience.
Girls--hundreds of them--eager, bright-eyed, attentive
young faces; crowding questions, and, I regret to say, an
increasing inability on our part to answer them effectively.
Our special guides, who were on the platform with us, and
sometimes aided in clarifying a question or, oftener, an answer, noticed this effect, and closed the formal lecture part of the evening rather shortly.
"Our young women will be glad to meet you," Somel suggested, "to talk with you more personally, if you are willing?"
Willing! We were impatient and said as much, at which I saw
a flickering little smile cross Moadine's face. Even then, with all
those eager young things waiting to talk to us, a sudden question
crossed my mind: "What was their point of view? What did they
think of us?" We learned that later.
Terry plunged in among those young creatures with a sort of
rapture, somewhat as a glad swimmer takes to the sea. Jeff, with
a rapt look on his high-bred face, approached as to a sacrament. But I was a little chilled by that last thought of mine, and kept my eyes open. I found time to watch Jeff, even while I was surrounded by an eager group of questioners--as we all were-- and saw how his worshipping eyes, his grave courtesy, pleased and drew some of them; while others, rather stronger spirits they looked to be, drew away from his group to Terry's or mine.