“The two accusations don’t fit; but of the two I prefer the latter.”
“It is a mere egotistic diversion then?”
“Yes, a purely scientific experiment.”
“And your tenants have bath-tubs, I hear. Do they use them with Pears’ soap every morning?”
“I flatter myself that they are fairly clean. That alone is an interesting experiment. Dirt, I firmly believe to be the root of all evil.”
“Ah, we come down to the bed-rock of ethics at last, don’t we? Well, how is the laboratory getting on? Have you found traces of original sin in protoplasm?”
“I think I have spotted perverse tendencies,” Perior smiled.
“What a Calvinist you are!”
“Michael a Calvinist, my dear child!” Lady Paton looked up from her knitting in amazement.
“An illogical Calvinist. Instead of burning sinners he washes them! and I’ve no doubt that to some of them the latter form of purification is as disagreeable as the former. He puts them into model cottages, with Morris wall-papers.”