“Yet that was nothing to the next proof of his strength and manhood,” went on the proud wife. “He destroyed a monster more frightful than any lion or tropical snake––he overcame the curse of drink that had come down to him from––one of his parents.”
“From––from his––” whispered the girl, her averted face white and drawn with pain.
Mrs. Blake had bent over to kiss the forehead of her sleeping baby and did not see. “If only all parents 160 knew what terrible misfortunes, what tortures, their transgressions are apt to bring upon their innocent children!” she murmured.
“He told me that he won his way up out of the––the slums,” said Isobel. “It must be some men fail to do that because they have relatives to drag them down––their families.”
“It seems hard to say it, yet I do not know but that you are right, my dear,” agreed Mrs. Blake. “Strong men, if unhampered, have a chance to fight their way up out of the social pit. But women and girls, even when they escape the––the worst down there, can hardly hope ever to attain––And of course those that fall!––Our dual code of morality is hideously unjust to our sex, yet it still is the code under which we live.”
The girl drew in a deep, sighing breath. Her eyes were dark with anguish. Yet she forced a gay little laugh. “Aren’t we solemn sociologists! All we are concerned with is that he has won his way up, and there’s no one ever to drag him down or disgrace him; and––and you won’t be jealous if I set him up on a pedestal and bring incense to him on my bended knees.”
“Only you must give Thomas Herbert his share at the same time,” stipulated the mother.
The girl burst into prolonged and rather shrill laughter that passed the bounds of good breeding. Her emotion was so unrestrained that when she looked 161 about at her surprised companion her face was flushed and her eyes were swimming with tears.
“Please, oh, do please forgive me!” she begged with a humility as immoderate as had been her laughter. “I––I can’t tell you why, but––”
“Say no more, my dear,” soothed Mrs. Blake. “You are merely a bit hysterical. Perhaps the excitement of our coming, after your months of lonely ranch life––”