But Melanctha Herbert had listened to him say all this.  She knew he meant it, but it did not mean much to her, and she was sure some day he would find out, that it was not all, of real wisdom.  Melanctha knew very well what it was to have real wisdom.  “But how about Jane Harden?” said Melanctha to Jeff Campbell, “seems to me Dr. Campbell you find her to have something in her, and you go there very often, and you talk to her much more than you do to the nice girls that stay at home with their people, the kind you say you are really wanting.  It don’t seem to me Dr. Campbell, that what you say and what you do seem to have much to do with each other.  And about your being so good Dr. Campbell,” went on Melanctha, “You don’t care about going to church much yourself, and yet you always are saying you believe so much in things like that, for people.  It seems to me, Dr. Campbell you want to have a good time just like all us others, and then you just keep on saying that it’s right to be good and you ought not to have excitements, and yet you really don’t want to do it Dr. Campbell, no more than me or Jane Harden.  No, Dr. Campbell, it certainly does seem to me you don’t know very well yourself, what you mean, when you are talking.”

Jefferson had been talking right along, the way he always did when he got started, and now Melanctha’s answer only made him talk a little harder.  He laughed a little, too, but very low, so as not to disturb ‘Mis’ Herbert who was sleeping very nicely, and he looked brightly at Melanctha to enjoy her, and then he settled himself down to answer.

“Yes,” he began, “it certainly does sound a little like I didn’t know very well what I do mean, when you put it like that to me, Miss Melanctha, but that’s just because you don’t understand enough about what I meant, by what I was just saying to you.  I don’t say, never, I don’t want to know all kinds of people, Miss Melanctha, and I don’t say there ain’t many kinds of people, and I don’t say ever, that I don’t find some like Jane Harden very good to know and talk to, but it’s the strong things I like in Jane Harden, not all her excitements.  I don’t admire the bad things she does, Miss Melanctha, but Jane Harden is a strong woman and I always respect that in her.  No I know you don’t believe what I say, Miss Melanctha, but I mean it, and it’s all just because you don’t understand it when I say it.  And as for religion, that just ain’t my way of being good, Miss Melanctha, but it’s a good way for many people to be good and regular in their way of living, and if they believe it, it helps them to be good, and if they’re honest in it, I like to see them have it.  No, what I don’t like, Miss Melanctha, is this what I see so much with the colored people, their always wanting new things just to get excited.”

Jefferson Campbell here stopped himself in this talking.  Melanctha Herbert did not make any answer.  They both sat there very quiet.