"Why not? It's a fact."
"It is not a fact. I am not afraid of a daughter of mine disgracing herself. It's only bad blood that disgraces itself."
"I am not so sure about that when women throughout the entire country are striving to be unnatural. By the blood——"
"John."
He wheeled about and looked at her. "But I ask you if it isn't enough to make a saint pull out his hair? Simply opposed her marriage, used legitimate argument, and afterward begged like a dog. Isn't it enough to make me spurn the restraints of the church and take up the language of the mud-clerk?"
"No, dear; nothing should prompt you to do that. You have a soul to be saved."
"But is it necessary that my life should be tortured out of me in order that my soul may be saved? I don't care to pay such a price. Is it put down that I must be a second Job? Is a boil the sign of salvation?"
"For goodness' sake don't talk that way," she pleaded, but she had to turn her face away to hide her smile from him.
"But I've got to talk some way. Just reflect on her treatment of me and how I have humbled myself and whined at her feet. And I ask what may we not expect of such a creature? Is it that she wants to be different from anyone else? Let me tell you one thing: The woman who seeks to be strongly individualized may attain her aim, but it leads to a sacrifice of her modesty. I say she is in danger of disgracing herself."
Mrs. Cranceford shook her head. "You wait and we shall see. No member of my family was ever disgraced. I may be distressed at her peculiarities, at times, but I shall never be afraid for her conduct."