“Give me your mother's address,” she demanded.
“Certainly not.”
“You absolutely refuse to save yourself?”
“From what? From Peter? There are many worse people than Peter to save myself from, Mrs. Boyer—uncharitable people, and—and cruel people.”
Mrs. Boyer shrugged her plump shoulders.
“Meaning me!” she retorted. “My dear child, people are always cruel who try to save us from ourselves.”
Unluckily for Harmony, one of Anna's specious arguments must pop into her head at that instant and demand expression.
“People are living their own lives these days, Mrs. Boyer; old standards have gone. It is what one's conscience condemns that is wrong, isn't it? Not merely breaking laws that were made to fit the average, not the exception.”
Anna! Anna!
Mrs. Boyer flung up her hands.