April 28, 2025

⁂ Excerpt from That Hideous Strength — Ivy Maggs and Mother Dimble

Presented without comment

Ivy Maggs:
“I remember one day—it was before you came—Mother Dimble was saying something to the Doctor; and there he was sitting reading something, you know the way he does, with his fingers under some of the pages and a pencil in his hand—not the way you or I’d read—and he just said, ‘Yes dear,’ and we both of us knew he hadn’t been listening.

And I said, ‘There you are, Mother Dimble,’ said I, ‘that’s how they treat us once they’re married. They don’t even listen to what we say,’ I said.

And do you know what she said?
‘Ivy Maggs,’ said she, ‘did it ever come into your mind to ask whether anyone could listen to all we say?’

Those were her very words.

Of course I wasn’t going to give in to it, not before him, so I said, ‘Yes, they could.’ But it was a fair knock-out.

You know often I’ve been talking to my husband for a long time and he’s looked up and asked me what I’ve been saying and, do you know? I haven’t been able to remember myself!”