'That sounds dreadful,' said Cora.
'Why, you used to be so fond of it!'
'Yes; but I didn't think it meant anything so wicked as that; and, what's more, I don't believe it does.'
'I haven't changed the words, Cora. I did not say they meant anything more than they have always meant. But, you see, too, don't you, what a ghastly mockery it is to send religious teaching to people who never had a good dinner in their lives? What a frightful system it is that allows all these horrors!'
'But, my dearest Clare, even if it is horrible, I don't see what you can do to alter it. Why, papa was saying only the other night that the social order was never so strong as now.'
'I'm in the humour for quoting, and I must keep on, I see,' said Clare, with a smile. 'Don't you remember?—
"Strong was its arm, each thew and bone
Seemed puissant and alive;
But, ah! its heart, its heart was stone,
And so it could not thrive."'
'Clare,' said the other affectionately, putting her arms round her friend's waist, 'you really oughtn't to take up these ideas. Do you know mamma says it's not natural for girls of our age to take such dismal views of things? You'll make yourself quite miserable if you go on with these books.'
'I seem to have nothing but Matthew Arnold in my head this afternoon,—
"But now the old is out of date,
The new is not yet born;
And who can be alone elate,
While the world lies forlorn?"'