Page:My Dear Cornelia (1924).pdf/23

 including your own household, you had better prepare to support the best elements in the de facto government—in the literary no less than in the political republic."

"There are no best elements," Cornelia retorted, "in what you call the de facto government. There are no good elements. There are no decent elements. It is an insurrection of hoodlum and bedlam. It is all vile. The situation," she continued, with the clear precision of a cookie-cutter, "demands drastic action. You, instead of strengthening the hands of those who attempt to act, amuse yourself with philosophical futilities, and virtually throw the weight of your levity against all action."

"Suppose I desire an antecedent action of the mind?"

"But you are so ambiguous that you have no force. One can't really tell on which side you are."

"I should like," I hurriedly replied, "to be on the side of the angels. You know that I should like to be on your side. If I am ever driven from your side, it will be by the fine high-bred incuriosity of angels. It will be by the applause of angels, accompanied by some fresh demonstration of their immitigable hostility to thought."