than to use them in
luxurious living.

Riis. But how do you define luxury?

Svava. We did not discuss that at all. But I saw that he considered
luxury to be immoral.

Riis. Luxury immoral!

Svava. Yes, I know that is not your opinion. But it is mine.

Riis. Your mother's, you mean, and your grand mother's.

Svava. Exactly; but mine too, if you don't object?

Riis. Not I!

Svava. I mentioned that little incident that happened to us when we were
in America--do you remember? We had gone to a temperance meeting, and
saw women drive up who were going to support the cause of abstinence,
and yet were--well, of course we did not know their circumstances--but
to judge from their appearance, with their carriages and horses, their
jewellery and dresses--especially their jewellery--they must have been
worth, say--

Riis. Say many thousands of dollars! No doubt about it.

Svava. There is no doubt about it. And don't you think that is really
just as disgraceful debauchery, in its town way, as drink is in its?

Riis. Oh, well--!

Svava. Yes, you shrug your shoulders. Alfred did not do that. He told me
of his own experiences--in great cities. It was horrible!

Riis. What was horrible?

Svava. The contrast between poverty and wealth--between the bitterest
want and the most reckless luxury.

Riis. Oh--that! I thought, perhaps--. However, go on!

Svava. He did not sit looking quite indifferent and clean his nails.

Riis. I beg your pardon.

Svava. Oh, please go on, dear!--No, he prophesied a great social
revolution, and spoke so fervently about it--and it was then that he
told me what his ideas about wealth were. It was the greatest possible
surprise to me--and a new idea to me, too, to some extent. You should
have seen how handsome he looked!

Riis. Handsome, did you say?

Svava. Isn't he handsome? I think so, at all events. And so does mother,
I think?

Mrs. Riis (without looking up from her book). And so does mother.

Riis. Mothers always fall in love with their daughters' young men--but
they fall out again when they become their mothers-in-law!

Svava. Is that your experience?

Riis. That is my experience. So Alfred Christensen has blossomed into a
beauty? Well, we must consider that settled.

Svava. He stood there so sure of himself, and looking so honest and
clean--for that is an essential thing, you know.

Riis. What exactly do you mean by "clean," my dear?

Svava. I mean just what the word mean