Whereupon, for a moment snubbed and silent, he felt like one of the crowd.
Then it made him slightly vicious. "I didn't know but you meant the people
in general--till I remembered that I'm to understand from you that
_they're_ wise, only occasionally breaking down."
It wasn't really till then, he thought, that she lost patience; and he had
had, much more than he meant no doubt, a cross-questioning air. "You'll see
for yourself." Of which he was sure enough. He was in fact so ready to take
this that she came round to full accommodation, put it frankly that every
now and then they broke out--not the silly, oh no, the intensely inquiring.
"We've had quite lively discussions, don't you know, about well-known
points. They want it all _their_ way, and I know the sort that are going to
as soon as I see them. That's one of the things you do--you get to know the
sorts. And if it's what you're afraid of--their taking you up," she was
further gracious enough to say, "you needn't mind a bit. What _do_ they
know, after all, when for us it's our life? I've never moved an inch,
because, you see, I shouldn't have been here if I didn't know where I was.
No more will _you_ be a year hence--you know what I mean, putting it
impossibly--if you don't. I expect you do, in spite of your fancies." And
she dropped once more to bed-rock. "There are the facts. Otherwise where
would any of us be? That's all you've got to go upon. A person, however
cheeky, can't have them _his_ way just because he takes it into his head.
There can only be _one_ way, and," she gaily added as she took leave of
them, "I'm sure it's quite enough!"