It doesn't do
to let the dramatic instinct carry one too far; one must consider
one's environment. When one lives among greyhounds one should
avoid giving life-like imitations of a rabbit, unless one want's
one's head snapped off. Remember, I've got this place on a seven
years' lease. And then," continued the Baroness, "as to skippings
and flying leaps; I must ask Emily Dushford to take a part. She's
a dear good thing, and will do anything she's told, or try to; but
can you imagine her doing a flying leap under any circumstances?"
"She can be Cassandra, and she need only take flying leaps into
the future, in a metaphorical sense."
"Cassandra; rather a pretty name. What kind of character is she?"
"She was a sort of advance-agent for calamities. To know her was
to know the worst. Fortunately for the gaiety of the age she
lived in, no one took her very seriously. Still, it must have
been fairly galling to have her turning up after every catastrophe
with a conscious air of 'perhaps another time you'll believe what
I say.'"
"I should have wanted to kill her."
"As Clytemnestra I believe you gratify that very natural wish."
"Then it has a happy ending, in spite of it being a tragedy?"
"Well, hardly," said Clovis; "you see, the satisfaction of putting
a violent end to Cassandra must have been considerably damped by
the fact that she had foretold what was going to happen to her.
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