ambitions for him: she would have liked him to fancy a "nice girl" like
Harriet Ray.

Harriet Ray was neither vulgar nor ambitious. She regarded Washington
Square as the birthplace of Society, knew by heart all the cousinships
of early New York, hated motor-cars, could not make herself understood
on the telephone, and was determined, if she married, never to receive a
divorced woman. As Mrs. Marvell often said, such girls as Harriet were
growing rare. Ralph was not sure about this. He was inclined to think
that, certain modifications allowed for, there would always be plenty of
Harriet Rays for unworldly mothers to commend to their sons; and he had
no desire to diminish their number by removing one from the ranks of the
marriageable. He had no desire to marry at all--that had been the whole
truth of it till he met Undine Spragg. And now--? He lit a cigar, and
began to recall his hour's conversation with Mrs. Spragg.

Ralph had never taken his mother's social faiths very seriously.
Surveying the march of civilization from a loftier angle, he had early
mingled with the Invaders, and curiously observed their rites and
customs. But most of those he had met had already been modified by
contact with the indigenous: they spoke the same language as his, though
on their lips it had often so different a meaning. Ralph had never seen
them actually in the making, before they had acquired the speech of the
conquered race. But Mrs. Spragg still used the dialect of her people,
and before the end of the visit Ralph had ceased to regret that her
daughter was out. He felt obscurely that in the girl's presence--frank
and simple as he thought her--he should have learned less of life in
early Apex.

Mrs. Spragg, once reconciled--or at least resigned--to the mysterious