"Well, what right have you to be rude to him?"

"Because I hate him. You think it is so splendid to hate no one.
I tell you it is a crime. You want to love every one equally, and
that's worse than impossible it's wrong. When you denounce sets,
you're really trying to destroy friendship."

"I maintain," said Rickie--it was a verb he clung to, in the hope
that it would lend stability to what followed--"I maintain that
one can like many more people than one supposes."

"And I maintain that you hate many more people than you pretend."

"I hate no one," he exclaimed with extraordinary vehemence, and
the dell re-echoed that it hated no one.

"We are obliged to believe you," said Widdrington, smiling a
little "but we are sorry about it."

"Not even your father?" asked Ansell.

Rickie was silent.

"Not even your father?"

The cloud above extended a great promontory across the sun. It
only lay there for a moment, yet that was enough to summon the
lurking coldness from the earth.