ways lost his head and got excited in
argument with Ralph.

"Yes, yes, that's what I mean. She's got it right," he exclaimed, after
Katharine had restated his case, and made it more precise. The debate
was left almost solely to Katharine and Ralph. They looked into each
other's eyes fixedly, like wrestlers trying to see what movement is
coming next, and while Ralph spoke, Katharine bit her lower lip, and was
always ready with her next point as soon as he had done. They were very
well matched, and held the opposite views.

But at the most exciting stage of the argument, for no reason that
Katharine could see, all chairs were pushed back, and one after another
the Denham family got up and went out of the door, as if a bell had
summoned them. She was not used to the clockwork regulations of a large
family. She hesitated in what she was saying, and rose. Mrs. Denham and
Joan had drawn together and stood by the fireplace, slightly raising
their skirts above their ankles, and discussing something which had
an air of being very serious and very private. They appeared to have
forgotten her presence among them. Ralph stood holding the door open for
her.

"Won't you come up to my room?" he said. And Katharine, glancing back at
Joan, who smiled at her in a preoccupied way, followed Ralph upstairs.
She was thinking of their argument, and when, after the long climb, he
opened his door, she began at once.

"The question is, then, at what point is it right for the individual to
assert his will against the will of the State."

For some time they continued the argument, and then the intervals
between one statement and the next became longer and longer, and they
spoke more speculatively and less pugnaciously, and at last fell silent.
Katharine went over the argument in her mind, remembering how, now and
then, it had been set conspicuously on the right course by some remark
offered either by James or by Johnnie.

"Your brothers are very clever," she said. "I suppose you're in the
habit of arguing?"

"James and Johnnie will go on like that for hours," Ralph replied. "So
will Hester, if you start her upon Elizabethan dramatists."

"And the little girl with the pigtail?"

"Molly? She's only ten. But they're always arguing among themselves."

He was immensely pleased by Katharine's praise of his brothers and
sisters. He would have liked to go on telling her about them, but he
checked himself.

"I see that it must be difficult to