"You did. She was disposed to be a noble, useful worker, but now it seems as if she might drop to the level of a mere social leader. Do, please, treat Mrs. Whyland more considerately. She means to arrange quite a nice little programme, and it will be no disadvantage to you to take part in it. Mr. Bond will read one or two of his travel-sketches, and I may do a little something myself--a bit in the way of music, perhaps." "H'm," said Abner. "Travel-sketches?" He ignored the promise of music. "With folk-songs on the violin." "I shall hope to offer something better worth while than travel-sketches," said Abner. "His things will hardly harmonize with mine, I'm afraid; but possibly they will serve as a sort of contrast." "His things will be slight, of course, but the songs will help him out. Very simple arrangements; people don't care much for anything serious or heavy." "I shall not show myself a mere frivolous entertainer--a simple filler-in of the leisure moments of the wealthy," said Abner. Medora banished the violin--and herself. "What do you think of reading?" she asked. "One or two pieces from my first book, I expect,--_Jim McKay's Defeat_ and _Less Than the Beasts_, with possibly one of the later chapters in _Regeneration_." "M--m," said Medora. "You don't like _Regeneration_, I'm afraid; but there's going to be some good stuff in it, let me tell you. People will open their eyes and begin to think. This question of marriage----" "You will read that part, then?" "Why not? It's a vital question. It concerns everybody, at all times." "Yes, it always has--for thousands of years." "I don't know that I care for the thousands of years. I care for this year and next year." "And a great deal of good thought has been put into it already." "But not the best. The whole subject needs ventilating, shaking up." "You would attack the fundamentals, then?" "Why not? I'm a radical. I've always called myself such. I go to the root, without fear, without favour." "Still, the present arrangement, resulting from the collective wisdom and experience of the race ..." said Medora, crumbling her last bit of cake. "You make me think of Bond and his 'historical perspective.'" "I meant to. It isn't enough to know at just what point in the road we are; we must know what steps we have taken, what course we have traversed, to reach it." "I never look behind. The hopes and possibilities of the immediate future are the things that interest _me_. I shall read several chapters of _Regeneration_--not merely one--on my tour." "On your tour, yes. But for Mrs. Whyland substitute something else. There was a story you wrote at the farm--the one about the girl and her step-mother--" "H'm, yes," said Abner, with less enthusiasm than he usually showed for his own work. "_In Winter Weather_? H'm."