"You should say please! Indescribably neglected, but I succeeded, by gentleness, in awakening their better feelings."
"What a horrible smell! Let's go, Eugenia," implored Mrs. Homan.
They went upstairs and entered the large room without knocking.
The joiner seized his plane and began planing a knotty board, so that the ladies had to shout to make themselves heard.
"Is anybody here thirsting for salvation?" shouted Mrs. Homan, while Mrs. Falk worked her scent-spray so vigorously that the children began to cry with the smarting of their eyes.
"Are you offering us salvation, lady?" asked the joiner, interrupting his work. "Where did you get it from? Perhaps there's charity to be had, too, and humiliation and pride?"
"You are a ruffian; you will be damned," answered Mrs. Homan.
Mrs. Falk made notes in her note-book. "He's all right," she remarked.
"Is there anything else you'd like to say?" asked Mrs. Homan.
"We know the sort you are! Perhaps you'd like to talk to me about religion, ladies? I can talk on any subject. Have you ever heard anything about the councils held at Nicæa, or the Smalcaldic Articles?"