About this story
There you meet Verena Tarrant, whose father presents her gift for inspired speech like a parlor trick, and whose own voice, once she begins, sounds like conviction rather than performance. Olive claims Verena for the cause before the evening ends; Verena agrees to see you both again, on the condition that neither one owns the answer she gives.
How it opens
Boston rain sharpened the lamps when you first climbed Olive Chancellor's stone steps.
Mrs LunaCousin Basil, the defeated South has sent us a lawyer with dangerous eyebrows.
Your widowed cousin examined your coat, your politics, and your poverty with equal amusement.
Olive ChancellorAdeline invited you to flirt; I invited you because family should face disagreement.
Then let us disagree before dinner and preserve the evening for peace.
Choose
Rights belong to persons, though your program may not define freedom as I do.
I came to know my cousin, not to rehearse a public debate.
Show me the strongest case you have before asking for surrender.