"I certainly do not. You seem to want to leave me in the dark; and that's no joke."
"She's going to be queen of their infernal Knights of Midas ball, that's what."
"Your language is spirited, I must say. I think we may classify that as important if true."
"It's an outrage; an infernal damned shame!" Raridan went on.
"Language unbecoming an officer and a gentleman—"
"There's a fine girl, as charming as any girl dare be. She has a father who doesn't appreciate her;—a good fellow and all that and he wouldn't hurt her for anything on earth; but he hasn't got any sensibility; that's the trouble with scores of American fathers. These Western ones are worse than any others. They break their sons in, whenever they can, to the same collars they've worn themselves. Their daughters they usually don't understand at all! They intimidate their wives so that the poor things don't dare call their souls their own; but the women are the saving remnant out here. And when a particularly fine one turns up she ought to be protected from the curse of our infernal commercialism."
He threw himself into a chair and lighted a cigarette.
Saxton laughed silently.
"Isn't this a new responsibility you've taken on? I don't believe these things are as bad as you make them out to be. The commercial curse is one of the things you can't dodge these days. It's just as bad in Boston as it is here; and you find it wherever you find live people who want bread to eat and cake if they can get it."
"But to visit the curse on a girl,—a fine girl,—"