Mary pursed her lips. "Her ideas seem ... radical. That's bad enough, in
a man; in a woman, it's inexcusable. It gets her talked about."
"People talk about Jane Addams, and Sara Bernhardt."
"There is a difference. I hope mother's boy won't see too much of such
a woman.... You haven't mentioned Nellie Tolliver in some time."
"Nellie's head doesn't hold anything except bridge and the club."
"Mrs. Tolliver is a member of the Highland Study Circle, with me,
Pelham. Nellie is a dear, sweet girl. Any woman would be proud to have
her for a daughter."
Pelham yawned brutally. "Hollis is coming along, mother.... I'm not
bothering about marriage yet."
Conquering a bothersome timidity, he sounded his father upon the
proposed law, and his recent reading. Paul saw through the timid
questionings at once, and answered cautiously. "It won't do you any harm
to read that stuff. We all pass through it. Twenty-five years ago, your
mother and I read Bellamy's 'Looking Backward,' and liked it. Of course
such things can't be taken too seriously."
At the mention of the mining law, the father snorted. "So that's what
that Lauderdale girl has been up to! You'll find, Pelham, that Mrs.
Anderson is something of a busybody. As that law is framed now, it would
bankrupt every mine operator in the State within a year."
"But the principle of the thing----"
"The principle is admirable. But don't you bother about such
generalities. You'd better get your mind down to the problems of the
mountain; there's enough to be done here to keep your ingenuity
exercised."
Jane's chummy note answered his scrawled report of the conversation.
"And you might tell him that T. L. G.--'That Lauderdale Girl'--gives him
her regards. He likes the principle, does he? I think we've got Governor
Tennant on our side, although he's pretty close to your father's crowd.
Once the law is passed, we'll make all the mine operators sit up
straight! Until Friday night, then...."