Lee subdued this, in the merest decency; but the effort
left him thoroughly irritated. He found, finally, an outlet for his
annoyance in the restlessness of Helena; and he ordered her from the
table.
This show of paternal discipline Fanny met with lowered eyes and a
silence that endured until Gregory had walked sedately from the room;
then she reminded Lee that he must never, absolutely never, correct his
children when he was in an ill temper.
"That's nonsense," he returned shortly; "you ought to see that because
it's impossible. Even theoretically I don't agree with you--a child can
understand a punishment in which there is some warmth. You are dealing
with a little animal and not a reasonable being." To this Fanny replied
that her children were not animals.
"Really, Fanny, you don't know what you are talking about," he
asserted; "we are all, men and women and children and giraffes,
animals. You might look that up in the dictionary."
"I haven't any need to," she observed, with a calmness that further
tried him. "If the dictionary says that it isn't a very good one. And
if you are trying to tell me that Helena and Gregory are no better than
giraffes you're sillier than usual."
"That isn't in the least what I said," Lee retorted, with widely
separated words. "I wasn't speaking of the comparative but of the
absolute. It is a fact that we are animals, more responsible and with
greater powers than the others, but animals, animals.
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