Taken in conjunction with those young charms, her next words had an air of incongruity.
"You think I am hard," she said.

"When I think of these things I am hard--as hard as nails.

That is an Americanism, but it is a good expression.

I am angry for America.

If we are sordid and undignified, let us get what we pay for and make the others acknowledge that we have paid." She did not smile, nor did her father.