The general fingered his limp cravat with agitated plump fingers. "I never passed him on the road in my life that he didn't touch his hat," he admitted, "and once he took a stone out of the gray mare's shoe."
"He has a brain and he has ambition. Think what it is to be born in a lower class and to have a mind above it."
The general's great chest trembled.
"I wouldn't injure the little chap for the world George; on my soul, I wouldn't."
"I know it, Tom."
"My own great-grandfather Battle raised himself, George."
The judge waved the fact aside as insignificant.
"Of course, Mrs. Webb is a woman," he said with sexual cynicism, "and her views are naturally prejudiced. You can't expect a woman to look at things as coolly as we do, Tom."
The general brightened.
"'Tisn't nature," he declared. "You can't expect a woman to go against nature, sir."