"I thank you, Ruth, for this information."
"Harold," she said, laying her hand gently on his arm, "I hope you can prove that you are not a member of this organization."
"Didn't you say the principles were all right?"
"Yes, but so many claim that a lawless element belongs."
"Ruth, you know that hatred and prejudice will cause people to make bitter accusations which they cannot prove and which have no basis in fact. Enrolled as members of the Klan are ministers, lawyers, judges, congressmen, governors. Do you believe that officers who have taken an oath to support the government and enforce its laws and who have always been law-abiding citizens would become and remain members of an outlaw organization? I tell you, Ruth, the Klan is composed of many of the best citizens and its purpose is to uphold and enforce law—not to violate it."
"I suppose that is true, but somehow I can't help but hope you do not belong and that if necessary you can prove that you do not. I hardly know, after what you have told me about the Klan, why I should feel this way unless it is because I am your friend and interested in you and do not want you to do anything that will injure your chances for success in the business world or subject you to worry and persecution."
"I appreciate your consideration for me, but, Ruth, if the issues are as vital as I believe they are and the United States needs an organization of this character to protect our American institutions and our Christian civilization would you want me to refuse my support for fear of personal consequences?" As he asked this question, his gray eyes looked straight into her brown ones.
"Excuse me a moment," she said and left the room. She soon returned with two portraits. "This," she said, handing him one of the pictures, "is a portrait of Colonel Jameson, a Virginian, who was an officer in the Confederate army, and a member of the old Ku Klux Klan. He was my mother's father; and this is a picture of Major Babcock of General Sherman's staff, who was my father's father. Both of these men fought at the risk of their lives and at the sacrifice of personal interests for principles they believed to be right. On both sides of the house ancestors fought in the wars of 1812 and the Revolution. My family had a part in making this nation. Not only did the men of the Jameson and Babcock families fight, but the women folk sent them forth to battle in the spirit of love and sacrifice. The blood of these ancestors are in my veins. If the institutions and laws of our country and the sacred principles of Americanism are imperiled I ask you to do your duty courageously as becomes the man that I know you are." They were standing now, and as she made this speech he met her steady gaze unflinchingly. He slipped his arm about her and for a moment neither spoke. There are moments when speech is inadequate.
The following morning at the breakfast table in the Babcock home Mr. Babcock remarked, "You know that the more I see of that Mr. King the more favorably I am impressed with him. He strikes me as a man who has good stuff in him."
"Looks to me like he's kind of run-down at the heel—as mother used to say," said Aunt Clara. "He sure isn't prosperous looking like that Mr. Golter. In this day and age it's mighty essential that a man have money or a good income when he gets married or his wife can't have a place of any consequence in society."