Mrs. Lewknor, still seething, recorded the incident.
"The Church is the limit," she snapped. "I could have pushed that man over in the mud."
"Yes," said Mr. Trupp soothingly. "But you mustn't take the Church too seriously. The right way to look on it is as rather a bad joke."
That evening, after his coffee, Mr. Trupp laid down his evening paper and stared long into the fire as his manner was.
His wife and daughter waited for the word that was slowly brewing.
It came in time.
"Men grow when they've got to," he announced at last with humorous sententiousness.
"They can't grow much without food," said Bess with warmth. The incident of the afternoon had stirred her generous young soul to the deeps. "It's monstrous!"
"It is," her father agreed. "And it's all because Civilization has thrown up a class that's above the Discipline it imposes upon others."
Mrs. Trupp eyed her husband sternly.