said Sarah clearly.
Carol leaned forward and touched her arm.
âListen. I must try and make you understand! Before her marriage my motherâsheâs my stepmother reallyâwas a wardress in a prison. My father was the Governor and he married her. Well, itâs been like that ever since . Sheâs gone on being a wardressâ to us . Thatâs why our life is justâbeing in prison!â
Her head jerked round again.
âTheyâve missed me. IâI must go.â
Sarah caught her by the arm as she was darting off.
âOne minute. We must meet again and talk.â
âI canât. I shanât be able to.â
âYes, you can.â She spoke authoritatively. âCome to my room after you go to bed. Itâs 319. Donât forget, 319.â
She released her hold. Carol ran off after her family.
Sarah stood staring after her. She awoke from her thoughts to find Dr Gerard by her side.
âGood morning, Miss King. So youâve been talking to Miss Carol Boynton?â
âYes, we had the most extraordinary conversation. Let me tell you.â
She repeated the substance of her conversation with the girl. Gerard pounced on one point.
âWardress in a prison, was she, that old hippopotamus? That is significant, perhaps.â
Sarah said:
âYou mean that that is the cause of her tyranny? It is the habit of her former profession.â
Gerard shook his head.
âNo, that is approaching it from the wrong angle. There is some deep underlying compulsion. She does not love tyranny because she has been a wardress . Let us rather say that she became a wardress because she loved tyranny . In my theory it was a secret desire for power over other human beings that led her to adopt that profession.â
His face was very grave.
âThere are such strange things buried down in the unconscious. A lust for powerâa lust for crueltyâa savage desire to tear and rendâall the inheritance of our past racial memoriesâ¦They are all there, MissKing, all the cruelty and savagery and lustâ¦We shut the door on them and deny them conscious life, but sometimesâthey are too strong.â
Sarah shivered. âI know.â
Gerard continued: âWe see it all round us todayâin political creeds, in the conduct of nations. A reaction from humanitarianismâfrom pityâfrom brotherly good-will. The creeds sound well sometimesâa wise régimeâa beneficent governmentâbut imposed by force âresting on a basis of cruelty and fear. They are opening the door, these apostles of violence, they are letting up the old savagery, the old delight in cruelty for its own sake ! Oh, it is difficultâMan is an animal very delicately balanced. He has one prime necessityâto survive. To advance too quickly is as fatal as to lag behind. He must survive! He must, perhaps, retain some of the old savagery, but he must notâno definitely he must notâ deify it!â
There was a pause. Then Sarah said:
âYou think old Mrs Boynton is a kind of sadist?â
âI am almost sure of it. I think she rejoices in the infliction of painâmental pain, mind you, not physical. That is very much rarer and very much more difficult to deal with. She likes to have control of other human beings and she likes to make them suffer.â
âItâs pretty beastly,â said Sarah.
Gerard told her of his conversation with JeffersonCope. âHe doesnât realize what is going on?â she said thoughtfully.
âHow should he? He is not a psychologist.â
âTrue. He hasnât got our disgusting minds!â
âExactly. He has a nice, upright, sentimental, normal American mind. He believes in good rather than evil. He sees that the atmosphere of the Boynton family is all wrong, but he credits Mrs Boynton with misguided devotion rather than active maleficence.â
âThat should amuse her,â said