“You don’t?” She laughed and went on: “Well, he does; especially when he gets set in his head. A few of papa’s notions are just molasses, but most of ’em are like plaster of Paris;—if you don’t change ’em in a hurry before they set you never _can_ change ’em! That’s the trouble just now; he’s turned into plaster of Paris about poor Dan’s land operations, confound him!” She uttered this denunciation with a sharpness of emphasis not ill-natured, but earnest enough to make Harlan look at her seriously across the small table just set between them by a coloured housemaid. “You’ve been trying to alter your father’s opinion of Dan’s commercial ability, have you?” he inquired. “Yes, I have,” she answered crisply. “What’s the matter with the business men of this town, anyway? Why won’t they help Dan do a big thing?” At this Harlan allowed his eyes to fall from the troubled and yet spirited inquiry of her direct gaze; he looked at the cup he accepted from her, and frowned slightly as he answered: “Of course they think he’s a visionary. The most enthusiastic home boomer in the lot doesn’t dream the town’ll ever reach out as far as Dan’s foolish ‘Addition.’” “How do you know it’s foolish?” “Why, because the population would have to double to reach even the edge of his land, and this town hasn’t the kind of impetus that develops suburbs. You know what sort of place it is, yourself, Martha. It’s only an overgrown market-town, and an overgrown market-town is what it’ll always be.” “Don’t you like it?” she asked challengingly. “Don’t you even like the town you were born in and grew up in?” “That sounds like Dan. His latest phase is to become oratorical about the enormous future of our own, our native city—since he bought the Ornaby farm! I suppose I like it as well as I like any city except Florence. I don’t think it’s as ugly as New York, for instance, because the long stretches of big shade trees palliate our streets half the year, and nothing palliates the unevenness and everlasting tearing down and building up and digging and blasting and steam-riveting of New York. But I do hate the crudeness of things here.” “That’s the old, old cheap word for us,” she said, “‘Crude!’” Harlan laughed. “You _have_ been listening to Dan, the civic patriot! Crudeness isn’t _our_ specialty; the whole country’s crude, Martha.” “Compared to what? China?” “You’ll be telling me all about our literary societies and women’s clubs and the factories, if I don’t take care,” he returned lightly. “How dreadful all that is!” He sighed, and continued: “I suppose you’ve been trying to convince your father he ought to extend one of his street-car lines out into the wilderness toward Dan’s ‘Addition.’ Is that what you’ve been up to with the old gentleman, Martha?” “Yes, it is,” she said quickly. “If he doesn’t, how are people to get out there?”