A cigarette?
No? I'm afraid I can't ask you to have a cigar--"
"And take off my coat, and put my feet up, and be at home!" said
Craig. "I see you think I'm a boor."
"Don't you want people to think you a boor?" inquired she with
ironic seriousness.
He looked at her sharply. "You're laughing at me," he said,
calmly. "Now, wouldn't it be more ladylike for you to try to put
me at my ease? I'm in your house, you know."
Miss Severence flushed. "I beg your pardon," she said. "I did not
mean to offend."
"No," replied Craig. "You simply meant to amuse yourself with me.
And because I don't know what to do with my hands and because my
coat fits badly, you thought I wouldn't realize what you were
doing. You are very narrow--you fashionable people. You don't even
know that everybody ought to be judged on his own ground. To size
up a race-horse, you don't take him into a drawing room. And it
wouldn't be quite fair, would it, for me to judge these drawing-
room dolls by what they could do out among real men and women?
You--for instance. How would you show up, if you had to face life
with no husband and no money and five small children, as my mother
did? Well, SHE won out.
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