"Well," she answered, "I think you have done an unspeakable thing, that is all."
"Such as—"
"To have brought an abandoned woman into our home."
"If her presence blackens the walls, we will have them whitewashed."
But she was not to be turned off with levity. It was a serious matter, involving consequences of the sternest sort. Mrs. Taylor was of the class of minds which holds that just such laxities as this strike at the root of society. "It is not a joke, Joshua. She pollutes our home."
"Are you afraid she will contaminate me?" he asked. He was peering at her over the top of a newspaper.
She denied the idea emphatically.
"Baby, then?"
Equally absurd.
"Or the nurse?"