" He seized his hat, slammed the dining-room door, and a
few minutes later they heard the crash of the big front gate.
"Victory, Clara, victory!" cried Ida, still pirouetting around the
furniture. "Did you hear what he said? Pernicious influences! Don't
you understand, Clara? Why do you sit there so pale and glum? Why
don't you get up and dance?"
"Oh, I shall be so glad when it is over, Ida. I do hate to give him
pain. Surely he has learned now that it is very unpleasant to spend
one's life with reformers."
"He has almost learned it, Clara. Just one more little lesson. We must
not risk all at this last moment."
"What would you do, Ida? Oh, don't do anything too dreadful. I feel
that we have gone too far already."
"Oh, we can do it very nicely. You see we are both engaged and that
makes it very easy. Harold will do what you ask him, especially as you
have told him the reason why, and my Charles will do it without even
wanting to know the reason. Now you know what Mrs. Westmacott thinks
about the reserve of young ladies. Mere prudery, affectation, and a
relic of the dark ages of the Zenana. Those were her words, were they
not?"
"What then?"
"Well, now we must put it in practice.
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