"You'll find we present a united front on this issue," said Hazlitt sternly. "I mean your engagement." "Indeed?" said his daughter. "Let me tell you, I could separate you tomorrow on it. I'm an expert. I should only have to intimate to Pat that mother was getting to like Luke so much that behind his back--but I'm sick of being treacherous and untruthful. You two must face the fact that I love you both; that I like to be with both of you; and that I will not be made to feel lower than the wombat because I do love you both. Now, there it is; settle it between you." After she had gone they continued to stare at each other, like the last sane people in a world gone mad. "What," said her father, "do you gather that that incomprehensible tirade was all about?" "I can't make out," answered her mother. "She never was like that before--so excitable and rude. And I need not tell you that it's all her fancy. I've been ridiculously scrupulous in never saying anything to her but what a girl ought to hear about her father--a fixed principle that our difficulties should not come between you and her." "Of course, I know," he answered. "I know, because I know how absolutely without foundation her attack on me was. I've been most punctilious. To hurt a child's ideal of her mother! No, I have a good deal to reproach myself with in regard to my treatment of you, Alita; but not that--not that." "I'm sure of it," and she gave him quite a starry glance. "The truth is, I've spoiled her, Jim. I've treated her too much as a friend--as an equal." "It can't be done," said Hazlitt, shaking his head. "It isn't possible to have an equal relation with the younger generation. You've got to go to your contemporaries for friendship, Alita. That was true since the world began; but these young people--" Mrs. Hazlitt, who was still treating him as if he were an oracle, brightened at these words as if he were an oracle in excellent form. "Yes," she said, "they are different, aren't they? I can't imagine my ever having spoken to my parents as Lita just spoke to us." "Your mother! I should say not. One of the greatest ladies I ever met anywhere!" "Wasn't mother wonderful?" murmured Mrs. Hazlitt, and there was a pause while they both reflected upon common memories. Then she went on: "I must say I think you are very generous not to criticize me for the way I've brought Lita up. I feel humiliated." "My dear Alita," said Hazlitt, "I never have criticized you, and I never shall." "She hurt me terribly, Jim. She seemed so hard, so ruthless, so appraising of things that ought to be held sacred." These words were faintly reminiscent to Mr. Hazlitt, and he summoned them up: "In short a little like me, after all."