they were first allowed to in nice cafés? And, not simply that, men
didn't, either, when they were with us. We used to go to Cape May; they
called the dances hops; and do you, oh, do you, remember the bathing
suits?"

"I am not so certain about any great change," he objected. "I seem to
recall--"

"Horrid people will always be horrid!" she exclaimed. "I knew one or
two very fast girls; but they were different about it from now, it was
only whispered around and condemned, and it's shouted out today. I wish
I had known you sooner; I would have done a lot better than your
mother. I'd like to have had you, Lee, as a little boy; but I suppose
you're enough that yet."

His opposition to Fanny's maternal manner, directed at him, was
stronger than customary; she seemed to accept in herself every
responsibility for him; as though, whenever his actions were
unfortunate, it had been due to her imperfect control. With practically
no experience of life, guarded from its threatening aspects, her
attitude was that, not without patience, she brought him with relative
safety through a maze in which otherwise he'd be lost. This was evident
now in what he felt to be the complacency of her voice and expression;
and a perverse impulse grew in him to combat and shatter her blind
satisfaction. Lee subdued this, in the merest decency; but the effort
left him thoroughly irritated. He found, finally, an outlet for his
annoyance in the restlessness of Helena; and he ordered her from the
table.

This show of paternal discipline Fanny met with lowered eyes and a