This idealistic system receives the
homage of lip service from the third and struggling section of
mankind, but no more, for in practice it would hamper them at
every turn in their efforts to fight their way up. Susan was,
at that stage of her career, a candidate for membership in the
struggling class. Her heart was set firmly against the
unwritten, unspoken, even unwhispered code of practical
morality which dominates the struggling class. But life had at
least taught her the folly of intolerance. So when Gideon
talked in terms of that practical morality, she listened
without offense; and she talked to him in terms of it because
to talk the idealistic morality in which she had been bred and
before which she bowed the knee in sincere belief would have
been simply to excite his laughter at her innocence and his
contempt for her folly.
"I feel that I've been paid," said she. "I did it for the
house--because I owed it to them."
"Only for the house?" said he with insinuating tenderness. He
took and pressed the fingers extended with the money in them.
"Only for the house," she repeated, a hard note in her voice.
And her fingers slipped away, leaving the money in his hand.
"At least, I suppose it must have been for the house," she
added, reflectively, talking to herself aloud. "Why did I do
it? I don't know. I don't know. They say one always has a
reason for what one does.
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