their ignorance and idleness and irresponsibility and self-indulgence,
and, all the more because it is so delicate and attractive and
unconscious; and their belief that the world owes them luxury and
happiness without their lifting a finger. I fear their cowardice and lack
of character--"

"Cowardice!" he cried, catching at the first word he could. "My dear Mrs.
Wayne, the aristocrats in the French Revolution, the British officer--"

"Oh, yes, they know how to die," she answered; "but do they know how to
live when the horrible, sordid little strain of every-day life begins to
make demands upon them, their futile education, the moral feebleness that
comes with perfect safety! I know something can be made of such girls,
but I don't want my son sacrificed in the process."

There was a long, dark silence; then Mr. Lanley said with a particularly
careful and exact enunciation:

"I think, my dear madam, that you cannot have known very many of the
young women you are describing. It may be that there are some like
that--daughters of our mushroom finance; but I can assure you that the
children of ladies and gentlemen are not at all as you seem to imagine."

It was characteristic of Mrs. Wayne that, still absorbed by her own
convictions, she did not notice the insult of hearing ladies and
gentlemen described to her as if they were beings wholly alien to her
experience; but the tone of his speech startled her, and she woke, like a
person coming out of a trance, to all the harm she had done.

"I may be old-fashioned--" he began and then threw the phrase from him;