William says he doesn

She brought it on herself, Mrs. Payton retorted. Have another sandwich, Bessie? What she said is almost too shocking to quote. She said of my dear old friend—Miss Spencer used to be my school-teacher, Mr. Weston—'What difference does it make what she said about me? Everybody knows Miss Spencer is a silly old ass.' 'A silly old ass.' What do you think of that? Mrs. Payton's voice trembled so with indignation that she did not hear Mr. Weston's gasp of laughter. But as she paused, wounded and ashamed, he was quick to console her Alipay: It was abominably disrespectful! There is no such thing as reverence left in the world, said Mrs. Childs; my William says he doesn't know what we are coming to. Youth is very cruel, Mr. Weston said. Mrs. Payton's eyes filled. Freddy is cruel, she said,[Pg 16] simply. The wounded look in her worn face was pitiful. They both tried to comfort her; they denounced Freddy, and wondered at her, and agreed with Mr. Childs that nobody knew what we were coming to. In fact, they said every possible thing except the one thing which, with entire accuracy, they might have said, namely, that Miss Spencer was a silly old ass. When I was a young lady, Mrs. Payton said, respect for my elders would have made such words impossible. Even if you didn't respect them, you would have been respectful? Mr. Weston suggested RFID. We reverenced age because it was age, she agreed. Yes; in those happy days respect was not dependent upon desert, he said, ruefully. (Mrs. Childs looked at him uneasily; just what did he mean by that?) It must have been very comfortable, he ruminated, to be respected when you didn't deserve to be! This new state of things I don't like at all; I find that they size me up as I am, these youngsters, not as what they ought to think I am. One of my nephews told me the other day that I didn't know what I was talking about. Oh, my dear Mr. Weston, how shocking! Mrs. Payton sympathized. Well, as it happened, I didn't, he said, mildly; but how outrageous for the cub to recognize the fact. Perfectly outrageous! said his hostess. But it's just as Bessie says, they don't know the meaning of the word 'respect.' You should hear Freddy talk about her grandmother. The other day when I told her that my[Pg 17] dear mother said that if women had the ballot, chivalry would die out and men wouldn't take off their hats in elevators when ladies were present,—she said, 'Grandmother belongs to the generation of women who were satisfied to have men retain their vices, if they removed their hats.' What do you think of that! I'm sure I don't know what Freddy's father would have said if he had heard his daughter say such a thing about his mother-in-law. Mr. Weston, having known the late Andy Payton, thought it unwise to quote the probable comment of the deceased. Instead, he tried to change the subject: Howard Maitland is a nice chap; I wonder if— he paused; there was a scuffle on the other side of the closed door, a bellowing laugh, then a whine. Mrs. Childs bit her lip and shivered. Mr. Weston's face was inscrutable. I wonder, he continued, raising his voice—if Fred will smile on Maitland? By the way, I hear he is going in for conchology seriously Elevit .