"
"Had they knowledge enough to be ashamed of their ignorance?"
"Yes, in certain ways--to a certain degree."
"It's a curious thing, this thing we call civilisation,"
said the elder musingly. "We think it is an affair of epochs
and of nations. It's really an affair of individuals.
One brother will be civilised and the other a barbarian.
I've occasionally met young girls who were so brutally,
insolently, wilfully indifferent to the arts which make
civilisation that they ought to have been clothed in the
skins of wild beasts and gone about barefoot with clubs
over their shoulders. Yet they were of polite origin,
and their parents were at least respectful of the things
that these young animals despised."
"I don't think that is exactly the case with the
Lapham family," said the son, smiling. "The father
and mother rather apologised about not getting
time to read, and the young ladies by no means scorned it."
"They are quite advanced!"
"They are going to have a library in their Beacon
Street house."
"Oh, poor things! How are they ever going to get
the books together?"
"Well, sir," said the son, colouring a little, "I have
been indirectly applied to for help."
"You, Tom!" His father dropped back in his chair and laughed.
"I recommended the standard authors," said the son.
"Oh, I never supposed your PRUDENCE would be at fault, Tom!"
"But seriously," said the young man, generously smiling
in sympathy with his father's enjoyment, "they're not
unintelligent people.
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