Page:Keeping the Peace.pdf/277

 must have another chance, he says; but she is very tired of Mark, and she will never tire of flattery."

"And Mark was doing so well, and now he has to start all over again. What does mother think about all this?"

Mr. Eaton simply lifted his hands in a gesture which clearly indicated the hopelessness of trying to explain Dear Mother's thoughts on the subject. But he did say: "She has given Mark up for lost. He knows that his wife is a wicked woman and by his failure to punish her has made himself equally culpable. That, I believe, is a small part of your mother's mental attitude."

"It's altogether different in Europe," said Edward, "but American men, whether they are husbands or juries, don't ever seem to like to punish women."

"That is true," said Mr. Eaton, "we don't. We have destroyed the buffalo and the forest and the Indian. We are beginning to destroy the whole edifice of liberty which our ancestors worked so hard to build up for us. But to our women we have been fatuously kind and indulgent. Historians will come, perhaps, to the conclusion that that has been our greatest and our most destructive mistake."

"But we are not going to change?" said Edward.