"But you couldn't if you were Paul, my dear."
Joanna rolled up her umbrella. "Well, mother, I don't pretend to understand it; I could never exchange confidences with anybody for all those hours on end, least of all with a man. I should be 'gravelled for lack of matter' in no time; but those dear, silly people go on for sixty minutes at a stretch, and then, if I happen to disturb them, look at me as reproachfully as if they had only had five seconds together, instead of 'a long hour by Shrewsbury clock'."
Among the most enthusiastic of Paul's political supporters was the faithful Martha. Whenever she was able, she attended his meetings, and regarded them almost as means of grace.
"I don't believe that the Pope of Rome or the President of the Conference could make finer speeches than Master Paul does," she said one day, as she was dusting the drawing-room, and Joanna was arranging the flowers.
Joanna laughed. "He is certainly a born orator, Martha; he plays upon his audience as if he were playing upon an organ."
"He does indeed, miss; and never seems at a loss for a word. I'm bound to say I didn't think Master Paul had it in him to speak like that. When you listen to him, you wonder how the folks that think differently have managed to keep themselves out of the lunatic asylums; and that is the sort of speaking, and the sort of preaching, that does real good, to my thinking."
"Still, I suppose, one ought to hear both sides of a question," argued the wise Joanna.
"Certainly not, miss; there is nothing so unsettling. Besides, where's the good? Only one side can be right, that is plain; and what is the use of wasting the time in listening to the side that is wrong?"
"But, Martha, how can you tell which side is right without hearing both?"
Martha dusted so fiercely that the ornaments fairly danced. "Bless your dear heart, if you are a woman, you know who is right and who is wrong before you've heard a single word; and if you are a man, you don't know who is right and who is wrong after you've heard all there is to be said. But Mr. Paul's speeches are very convincing, all the same; especially to folks as think the same as he does to begin with."