This would not be
good form or respectable. That would disturb the existing order.
So let's all do nothing and agree that all's well with the world."
Merrill greeted this outburst with a complacent smile. "It's a
pretty good world. I haven't any fault to find with it--not this
afternoon anyhow."
But Alice, serious with young care and weighted with the problems
of a universe, would have none of his compliments.
"Can't you see that there's a--a " She groped and found a fugitive
phrase Jeff had once used--"a want of adjustment that is
appalling?"
"It doesn't appall me. I believe in the survival of the fittest."
Her eyes looked at him with scornful penetration. They went
through the well-dressed, broad-shouldered exterior of him, to see
a suave, gracious Pharisee of the modern world. He believed in the
God-of-things-as-they-are because he was the man on horseback. He
was a formalist because it paid him to be one. That was why he and
his class looked on any questioning of conditions as almost
atheistic. They were born to the good things of life. Why should
they doubt the ethics of a system that had dealt so kindly with
them?
She gave him up.
Pages:
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294