The Swarm 



tragic and distant quest of love. This 

 they will never do, however, if they be 

 provided with a fragment of comb con- 

 taining brood-cells, whence they shall be 

 able to rear other queens. Indeed, their 

 affection even may turn into fury and 

 hatred should their sovereign fail in her 

 duty to that sort of abstract divinity that 

 we should call future society, which the 

 bees would appear to regard far more 

 seriously than we. It happens, for in- 

 stance, at times, that apiarists for various 

 reasons will prevent the queen from join- 

 ing a swarm by inserting a trellis into the 

 hive; the nimble and slender workers will 

 flit through it, unperceiving, but to the 

 poor slave of love, heavier and more cor- 

 pulent than her daughters, it offers an im- 

 passable barrier. The bees, when they 

 find that the queen has not followed, will 

 return to the hive, and scold the unfortu- 

 Txate prisoner, hustle and ill-treat her, 



109 



