"It makes my traditional abolition blood boil to see how public opinion seems to be settling down and dallying with heresy and injustice again," Madeline exclaimed. She looked flushed and vigorous, and Lena stared at her and wondered how she could care for such things. Was it pure affectation? "Oh, you're young, my dear," said Mrs. Lenox laughingly. "You must hold all your opinions violently. And you haven't been South. Things can't help looking different down there." "Vera!" cried Miss Elton so explosively that Lena sat up straighter than ever, "you're not really a renegade yourself, are you?" and she spoke as though her life depended on the answer. "Certainly not," Mrs. Lenox answered. "But I'm growing tolerant toward the poor old world as it is. I'm willing to let it grow slowly instead of insisting that it shall all be immediately as good and wise as I am. I'm learning to respect other people's point of view and to suspect that my mind is not such an ingenious mechanism as I once supposed it to be." "Moreover, since she has married, she has contracted a habit of taking the opposite point of view," said her husband. "Oh, that's one of the jokes that has successfully withstood the ravages of time," said Mrs. Lenox scornfully. "Very well, then, I'll say that you are getting on toward middle life and have had your enthusiasms corrupted by a worldly-wise father and husband. But I dare say that Miss Quincy, being young, is quite as explosive as you are, Madeline. So we shall be two against two." He looked with a challenge toward the girl, and perhaps Lena might have managed the expected saucy answer if she had not suddenly remembered that her shoes were shabby and she had meant to keep them hidden under her skirts. This memory destroyed her new-found equilibrium, so she blurted out a weak, "I really don't know anything about it," and then blushed hotly at her own awkwardness. "It's a stupid subject, anyway," said Mr. Lenox. "I fled from town to avoid it. Let's not talk about negroes." "Tell us what has happened in the great world," said Mrs. Lenox, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees and chin in hands. "Another Jap victory," he said. "And I'll take a second one of those little cakes please, if Miss Quincy will leave one for me. It cuts me to the heart to see how the young girls of our generation stuff on little cakes. If they'd only take example by these same Japanese, who develop strategy and patriotism on rice, cherry blossoms and gymnastics, there'd be some hopes for us as a people."