ndignation. Besides, I have forgiven him--and you must forgive him too.
There is no fear of his forgetting himself again, while you are with me.
His house is quite a curiosity--it is sure to interest you; the pictures
alone are worth the journey. I will write to him to-day, and we will go
and see him together to-morrow. We owe it to ourselves (if we don't
owe it to Mr. Dexter) to pay this visit. If you will look about you,
Benjamin, you will see that benevolence toward everybody is the great
virtue of the time we live in. Poor Mr. Dexter must have the benefit of
the prevailing fashion. Come, come, march with the age! Open your mind
to the new ideas!"

Instead of accepting this polite invitation, worthy old Benjamin flew at
the age we lived in like a bull at a red cloth.

"Oh, the new ideas! the new ideas! By all manner of means, Valeria, let
us have the new ideas! The old morality's all wrong, the old ways are
all worn out. Let's march with the age we live in. Nothing comes amiss
to the age we live in. The wife in England and the husband in Spain,
married or not married living together or not living together--it's all
one to the new ideas. I'll go with you, Valeria; I'll be worthy of the
generation I live in. When we have done with Dexter, don't let's do
things by halves. Let's go and get crammed with ready made science at a
lecture--let's hear the last new professor, the man who has been behind
the scenes at Creation, and knows to a T how the world was made, and how
long it took to make it. There's the other fellow, too: mind we don't
forget the modern Solomon, who has left his proverbs behind him--the
brand-new philosopher who considers the consolations of religion in
the light of harmless playthings, and who is kind enough to say that
he might have been all the happier if he could only have been
childish enough to play with them himself. Oh, the new ideas! the new
ideas!--what consoling, elevating, beautiful discoveries have been made
by the new ideas! We were all monkeys before we were men, and molecules
before we were monkeys! and what does it matter? And what does anything
matter to anybody? I'm with you, Valeria, I'm ready. The sooner the
better. Come to Dexter! Come to Dexter!"

"I am so glad you agree with me," I said. "But let us do nothing in a
hurry. Three o'clock to-morrow will be time enough for Mr. Dexter. I
will write at once and tell him to expect us. Where are you going?"

"I am going to clear my mi