Bates--it was nothing less than a command, of course, and he must obey
it. He had found it something of an ordeal to lead even Jane round the
floor once; how much greater a one, then, to perform the like service for
Mrs. Granger Bates, whose escort could not but expect to draw scrutiny
and to provoke inquiry. He was a modest man with no pronounced social
ambitions; he would immensely have preferred to pass the same length of
time staring into a locomotive head-light.
Mrs. Bates presently effected a clearance, and with Brower as a convoy
steered straight for the open sea. She carried a bunch of plumes aloft,
showed a flashing brilliant on both the port and the starboard side, and
left a long trail of rustling silk and lace behind her. And as she
pursued her course, other craft, great and small, dipped their colors
right and left.
"I want you to see both ends of the scale," she presently said to Brower.
"You are trying to bring them closer together, they tell me."
"That is a part of our object," replied Brower.
"Well, you have one end in your Nineteenth Ward, and the other here. I
want you to get the good side of this."
"I should be glad to; there _is_ one, I'm sure."
"To begin with, don't encourage your associates to talk about the
'butterflies of fashion,' and that sort of thing. There are no
butterflies in this town, except young girls under twenty, and you surely
won't quarrel with _them_. Yes, we are all workers; what could Idleness
herself do with her time in such a place as this? You've got to work in
self-defence.
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