When August came and she knew that any day might bring the test, she
felt her courage ebbing just a little. As a panting man longs for more
alkali in his blood, so she longed for new courage.
She fancied ways out. Suppose she fled from her lover and hid herself in
a city. But that would leave her father alone, a desertion not to be
thought of. Suppose she carried her father off and earned a living for
them both. But that would break his heart. Suppose she lied to Marvin
and said that she had ceased to love him. But she really did not know
how to lie.
She turned back to history and harrowed her soul with horrors. She
reminded herself that excess of population has driven every race to
expose its children. She saw Sicilian graveyards opened and hundreds of
babies that had been buried alive in earthen pots. She saw the silver
sails of Athens unloading excess of life on every island, and the rock
called Tyre unloading its slums on Africa. She saw Europe unloading
itself on America. She even hunted up in Plato and Aristotle the
passages in which both those noble writers sanction abortion for the
good of the state.