If it had been Josie, I should have been
rather pleased--which shows, Fred, that I am not altogether hostile to
the spirit of the age. But I am not prepared as yet to see my only
really handsome daughter--and such a handsome one, Fred--fly in the
face of convention and custom merely--merely to please Miss Jacket and
the people who never have a chance to go anywhere."
All Josephine's combativeness and pride of opinion seemed to ooze
suddenly away, and she buried her face on my shoulder, murmuring--
"Oh, yes, the whole system of society for girls is ridiculous and
degenerating. I know it, I know it perfectly well. I don't approve of
it, I never have approved of it. I wonder that so many come out of it
as well as they do. And they are not content as in my day to be merely
giddy; they go in now for smoking cigarettes and drinking liqueurs
after dinner, and some of them paint their faces. Not all of them, of
course, not one-tenth of them; Josie will never do anything of the
kind. I ought, though, to be thankful, heartily thankful, if Winona
prefers to stay away from all this and to develop worthy tastes of her
own. She shall do what she pleases, Fred, only----"
My darling stopped short as though she had concluded not to complete
her sentence. She gulped bravely and lifted her eyes to mine.
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