"Another champion! Little Janet must be quite the belle of the ball."
"She's been much in demand. There was the gypsy tent, remember. When it comes to innocent credulity, a radical's capacity is just as great as any honest man's. So what with examining scores of palms and eluding Hutchins Burley, Janet might have died from exhaustion but for Claude's gallant interference."
"Just like Claude's knight-errantry," she said. "He has always had a passion for novelties."
"And the novelties have usually returned the passion!"
Cornelia felt a twinge of jealousy. But as Janet had evidently not been very attentive to Robert, and had even hurt his feelings, she was hardly conscious of the emotion.
"Janet is young, impressionable and fresh from a Puritan home," she said, with a languid air of detachment. "Small wonder if Lothario's dash and distinction have captivated her."
They fell to talking of Janet's history, and Robert spoke of the surprising change in her sphere of interests.
"A month ago she was demure enough to have stood model for the heroine of Miles Standish. She could hardly be induced to drink at a soda-water fountain on a Sunday. Now she is full of 'equal pay for equal work.' And she appears to have a voice as well as a vote. I'm told that she reads the Liberator and that she broke the last Sabbath by attending a meeting of the new Labor Party in Madison Square Garden."
"She's been under my wing for several weeks," said Cornelia, proudly.
III