It was
like having the doctor come: you knew the worst, and
could make ready for it.
They did not discuss the statements much. They had
discussed them too much in severalty. They did agree
that they should be left to Felix to report upon the next
evening. He was, so to speak, to post them, to strike
out from each side the quantities which could be
eliminated, and leave the equations so simplified that
the eight might determine what they should do about it--
indeed, what they could do about it.
The visitors put on their "things"--how strange that
that word should once have meant "parliaments!"--kissed
good-by so far as they were womanly, and went home.
George Haliburton screwed down the gas, and they went to bed.
CHAPTER II
STRIKING THE BALANCE
The next night they went to see Warren at the Museum.
That probably helped them. After the play they met by
appointment at the Carters'. Felix read his
REPORT.
1. NUMBER.--There are twenty-one reasons for
congratulation, twenty-four for regret. But of the
twenty-four, four are the same; namely, the cursed
political prospect of the country. Counting that as one
only, there are twenty-one on each side.
2. EVIL.--The twenty-one evils may be classified
thus: political, 1; social, 12; physical, 5; terrors, 3.
All the physical evils would be relieved by living in
a temperate climate, instead of this abomination, which
is not a climate, to which our ancestors were sold by the
cupidity of the Dutch.
Pages:
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292