“In what way is it harmful?” she asked, and then, quite innocently, “what is it all about any how, Madison?”
“Oh, well, we can’t go into that,” he said evasively.
“But why not? That is precisely what we must go into if we are to direct Dorothy’s reading properly. What is this book that you think she ought not to read? What does it treat of? What is there in it that you object to?”
Thus baited on a subject that he knew nothing about, Peyton grew angry, though he knew it would not do for him to manifest the fact. He unwisely, but with an air of very superior wisdom, blurted out:—
“If you had read that book, Cousin Polly, you wouldn’t like to make it the subject of conversation.”
“So?” asked the old lady. “It is in consideration of my ignorance then that you graciously pardon my discretion?”
“It’s a very proper ignorance. I respect you for never having indulged in such reading,” he answered.
“Then you must respect me less,” calmly responded the old lady, “for I have read the book and I’m reading it a second time. I don’t see that it has hurt me, but I’ll bow to your superior wisdom if you’ll only tell me what there is in the book that is likely to undermine my morals.”
The laugh that followed from Col. Majors and John Meaux—for the idea that anything, literary or otherwise, could undermine the vigorous morals of this high bred dame was too ludicrous to be resisted—nettled Peyton anew. Still further losing his temper he broke out:
“How should I know what is in the book? I never read such stuff. But I know it is unfit for a young girl, and in this case I have a right to dictate. I tell you now, Cousin Polly, that I will not have Dorothy’s mind perverted by such reading. My interest in this case is paramount and I mean to assert it. I have been glad to have her with you for the sake of the social and moral training I expected you to give her. But I tell you now, that if you don’t stop all this kind of reading and all this slopping in a laboratory, trying to learn atheistical science—for all science is atheistical as you well know—”