speak of these subjects further?" And there was a trace of scorn in her
tone.

His pride was touched, and he was all the more determined that he would be
heard. "I can give you good reason why we should speak further," he
answered resolutely yet quietly. "However strong your feeling may be, I
have too much respect for your intelligence and too much confidence in
your courage to believe that you will weakly shrink from hearing one who
is as conscientious as yourself. I cannot accept your illustration, and do
not think the instance you give is parallel. In the differences between
the North and the South, an appeal was made to the sword. If I had been
old enough I would have fought at my father's side. But the question is
now settled. No matter how we feel about it, the North and the South must
live together, and it is not my nature to live in hate. Suppose I
could--suppose it were possible for all Southern men to feel as you do and
act in accordance with such bitter enmity, what would be the result? It
would be suicide. Our land would become a desert. Capital and commerce
would leave our cities because there would be no security among a people
implacably hostile. Such a course would be more destructive than invading
armies. My business, the business of the city, is largely with the North.
If native Southern men tried to transact it in a cold, relentless spirit,
we should lose the chance to live, much less to do anything for our land.
We have suffered too much from this course already, and have allowed
strangers, who care nothing for us, to take much that might have been
ours. I love the South too well to advocate a course which would prove so
fatal. What is more, I cannot think it would be right. The North of your
imagination does not exist. I cannot hate people who have no hate for me,
but on the contrary abound in honest, kindly feeling."

She had listened quietly with her face turned from him, and now met his