There Mr.
French discoursed at great length, until the fourth of March sent him home to Connecticut; and he brought more than one intelligent member of Congress to Mrs.Lee's parlour.

Underneath the scum floating on the surface of politics, Madeleine felt that there was a sort of healthy ocean current of honest purpose, which swept the scum before it, and kept the mass pure.
This was enough to draw her on.

She reconciled herself to accepting the Ratcliffian morals, for she could see no choice.

She herself had approved every step she had seen him take.

She could not deny that there must be something wrong in a double standard of morality, but where was it?
Mr.
Ratcliffe seemed to her to be doing good work with as pure means as he had at hand.