"And indeed I'm glad they manage to write so much. They help to fight against the flood of nasty realistic works we get nowadays. I should like to see those all burnt."
Mrs. Blackstone went on to observe that she couldn't make out why people went on writing such filth. She preferred books of a sound, moral tone.
Morgan, feeling himself called upon to make common cause against the Philistine, put in a tentative word of defence.
"That's true," admitted Mrs. Blackstone.
He soon drew further admissions from her, she never suspecting the extent of the ground she was yielding till, just at the moment of rising, she apparently gave up her whole position with the naïve statement:
"I always thought they had a reason for introducing that sort of thing. Thank you so much, Mr. Druce, for explaining it to me."
He was not quite sure whether he had been bored or amused. All the same he now felt glad he had come; he seemed to be so much more actively interested in what was to follow. Instinctively he looked at Ingram, and the novelist came to talk to him whilst the other men discussed the hygienic aspects of smoking.
"Well, have you got over your temper yet?"
The phrasing was unfortunate, though its conciliatory intention was obvious. Morgan felt he was being addressed as if he were a sulky child, and his resentment leapt up afresh.
"I beg you will not interest yourself further in me," he said.