At that random shot Matthew stiffened angrily. “Good-night.”
“So you won’t tell me about your escapades even if I tell you about mine?” said Fliss, imperturbably. But he had gone. She saw the face in her mirror lose its lightness and get hard and a little bitter. Then she brushed on. It was good for the hair.
Later he came in and kissed her and patted her head thoughtfully.
“I’ve been thinking, Fliss,” he said to her, “that since you are to be in Washington you need a few more things. Most of the women must have a lot more jewels than you have. How about coming down to-morrow and treating yourself?”
“But I thought you were preaching economy for the nation.”
“I am. And I mean it. But I’d like to do this.”
She took her cue, though the droop in her voice belied the gayety of her words.
“All right, darling. Hang me with diamonds and watch me sparkle.”
CHAPTER XXIV
“THE trouble with the country just now,” said Matthew, making a farewell talk to the Chamber of Commerce, “is that it’s absolutely unfitted nervously to stand any strain or excitement. So long as things go well with us we are full of enthusiasm, but the suggestion of trouble upsets everything—frightens every one. We are unconsciously proceeding on the basis that there is no need of including trouble in our national philosophy. It is unnecessary to point out the fallacies in such thinking—nor the sad deviation from the spirit of the men who pioneered in this country, who expected difficulties, hardships, deprivations, and plowed their way through them. The modern assumption is that the normal state of things means ease and smoothness. The assumption is making us soft, making us unwilling to cope with trouble, instead of taking trouble and constant adjustment as part of the day’s work. Life has been made too easy for us as a nation—for us as individuals. We are all too ready to lie down if things do not go our way and blame it on the times. We are the strongest nation in the world and in imminent danger of a lazy and fun-loving philosophy making us the most corrupt. Sturdiness in the face of difficulty and even of defeat, unwillingness to lie down on the job—those are the things we need to cultivate and in the face of such qualities the bogies of social unrest and financial panics will lose their power to frighten us.”