“No. Clara’s an old-fashioned creature like mother. This is a newfangled thing like––like you.”
“Like me! This isn’t––”
“This is to be the Mamise.”
She could not hide her disappointment in her namesake.
“I must confess she’s not very beautiful to start with.”
“Neither were you at first, I suppose. I––I beg your pardon. I mean––”
He tried to tell her about the new principles of fabricated ships, the standardizing of the parts, and their manufacture at distances by various steel plants, the absence of curved lines, the advantage of all the sacrifice of the old art for the new speed.
In spite of what she had read she could not make his information her own. And yet it was thrilling to look at. She broke out:
“I’ve just got to learn how to build ships. It’s the one thing on earth that will make me happy.”
“Then I’ll have to get it for you.”