Page:The Fruit of the Tree (Wharton 1907).djvu/207

Rh garden—unless you transplant the ﬂower with its roots, and prepare the soil to receive it, your garden will be faded tomorrow. No radical changes have yet been made at Westmore; and it is of radical changes that I want to speak.”

Bessy’s look grew more pained, and Mr. Langhope exclaimed with unwonted irascibility: “Upon my soul, Amherst, the tone you take about what your wife has done doesn’t strike me as the likeliest way of encouraging her to do more!”

“I don’t want to encourage her to do more on such a basis—the sooner she sees the futility of it the better for Westmore!”

“The futility—?" Bessy broke out, with a ﬂutter of tears in her voice; but before her father could intervene Mr. Tredegar had raised his hand with the gesture of one accustomed to wield the gavel.

“My dear child, I see Amherst’s point, and it is best, as he says, that you should see it too. What he desires, as I understand it, is the complete reconstruction of the present state of things at Westmore; and he is right in saying that all your good works there—night-schools, and nursery, and so forth—leave that issue untouched.”

A smile quivered under Mr. Langhope’s moustache. He and Amherst both knew that Mr. Tredegar’s feint of recognizing the justice of his adversary’s claim was merely the ﬁrst step to annihilating it; but Bessy could [ 191 ]