They were on the same ground, but they had reached it from starting-points
so opposite that Annie felt it very unsafe. In her fear of getting into
some controversy with Mr. Peck that might interfere with her designs
regarding Idella, she had a little insincerity in saying: "Mrs. Munger's
bad faith in that was certainly unimportant compared with her part in poor
Mr. Putney's misfortune. That was the worst thing; that's what I
_can't_ forgive."
Mr. Peck said nothing to this, and Annie, somewhat daunted by his silence,
proceeded. "I've had the satisfaction of telling her what I thought on both
points. But Ralph--Mr. Putney--I hear, has escaped this time with less than
his usual--"
She did not know what lady-like word to use for spree, and so she stopped.
Mr. Peck merely said, "He has shown great self-control;" and she perceived
that he was not going to say more. He listened patiently to the reasons she
gave for not having offered Mrs. Putney anything more than passive sympathy
at a time when help could only have cumbered and kindness wounded her, but
he made no sign of thinking them either necessary or sufficient. In the
meantime he had not formally consented to Idella's remaining with her, and
Annie prepared to lead back to that affair as artfully as she could.
"I really want you to believe, Mr. Peck, that I think very differently on
_some_ points from what I did when we first talked about the Social
Union, and I have you to thank for seeing things in a new light. And you
needn't," she added lightly, "be afraid of my contaminating Idella's mind
with any wicked ideas. I'll do my best to keep her from coveting kittens
or property of any kind; though I've always heard my father say that
civilisation was founded upon the instinct of ownership, and that it was
the only thing that had advanced the world. And if you dread the danger
of giving her advantages, as you say, or bettering her worldly lot," she
continued, with a smile for his quixotic scruples, "why, I'll do my best to
reduce her blessings to a minimum; though I don't see why the poor little
thing shouldn't get some good from the inequalities that there always must
be in the world."
"I am not sure there always must be inequalities in the world," answered
the minister.
"There always have been," cried Annie.
"There always had been slavery, up to a certain time," he replied.
"Oh, but surely you don't compare the two!" Annie pleaded with what she
really regarded as a kind of lunacy in the good man. "In the freest
society, I've heard my father say, there is naturally an upward and
downward tendency; a perfect level is impossible. Some must rise, and some
must sink."