'I do not think he meant what he said there,' said Helen.

'And pray remember,' said Anne, 'that your favourite brown bread is
made of all those kinds mixed--bran, and pastry-flour, and all.'

'Yes,' said Helen, 'all the world would turn idiots if there were not
a few sensible people to raise the others.'

'Well,' said Elizabeth, 'you know the Veillees du Chateau says, there
is a village where all the people do turn idiots at fourteen.'

'You are just the right age, Helen,' said Anne, 'you had better take
care, since Lizzie says you live in such a foolish world.'

Helen had not tact enough to perceive that it was better to turn off
the discussion by a joke, and continued, 'And you forget how useful
it is to the sensible people to be obliged to bear and forbear.'

'I should be content, if the foolish people would be raised by the
wise, instead of debasing them,' said Elizabeth.

'If people are really wise, they will not let themselves be debased,'
said Anne.

Helen glanced towards Lucy, Elizabeth caught her eye, and smiled in a
way which almost compensated for all her unkindness in their dispute
an hour before.

Harriet and Katherine, who had not been much interested by this
argument, now started another subject of conversation, which they had