“You'd like to make us,” she said.
“What?”
“Hard.”
“I don't think you'll go on if you don't get hard.”
“We shan't be so pleasant if we do.”
“Well, there my puzzled wits come in again. I don't see why an aristocracy shouldn't be rather hard trained, and yet kindly. I'm not convinced that the resources of education are exhausted. I want to better this, because it already looks so good.”
“How are we to do it?” asked Mrs. Redmondson.
“Oh, there you have me! I've been spending my time lately in trying to answer that! It makes me quarrel with”—I held up my fingers and ticked the items off—“the public schools, the private tutors, the army exams, the Universities, the Church, the general attitude of the country towards science and literature—”
“We all do,” said Mrs. Redmondson. “We can't begin again at the beginning,” she added.