Now, I don't know what you think, Dr. Gerard, but I don't think that's always a very sound thing."
"I agree with you.
It is most harmful to developing mentalities."
"Yes, I should say that just about expresses it.
Mrs. Boynton shielded these children from the outside world and never let them make any outside contacts.
The result of that is that they've grown up - well, kind of nervy.
They're jumpy, if you know what I mean. Can't make friends with strangers.
It's bad, that."
"It is very bad."
"I we no doubt Mrs. Boynton meant well.
It was just over-devotion on her part."
"They all live at home?" asked the doctor.
"Yes."
"Do neither of the sons work?"
"Why, no.
Elmer Boynton was a rich man.
He left all his money to Mrs. Boynton for her lifetime - but it was understood that it was for the family upkeep generally."
"So they are dependent on her financially?"
"That is so.
And she's encouraged them to live at home and not go out and look for jobs.
Well, maybe that's all right; there's plenty of money. They don't need to take jobs but I think for the male sex, anyway, work's a good tonic.
Then there's another thing - they've none of them got any hobbies.
They don't play golf. They don't belong to any country club. They don't go around to dances or do anything with the other young people.
They live in a great barrack of a house way down in the country, miles from anywhere.
I tell you. Dr. Gerard, it seems all wrong to me."
"I agree with you," said Dr. Gerard.
"Not one of them has got the least social sense. The community spirit - that's what's lacking!
They may be a very devoted family but they're all bound up in themselves."
"There has never been any question of one or the other of them branching out for him- or herself?"
"Not that I've heard of. They just sit around."
"Do you put the blame for that on them or on Mrs. Boynton?"
Jefferson Cope shifted uneasily.
"Well, in a sense I feel she is more or less responsible. It's bad bringing up on her part.
All the same, when a young fellow comes to maturity it's up to him to kick over the traces of his own accord.
No boy ought to keep on being tied to his mother's apron strings.
He ought to choose to be independent."
Dr. Gerard said thoughtfully: "That might be impossible."
"Why impossible?"
"There are methods, Mr. Cope, of preventing a tree from growing."
Cope stared.
"They're a fine healthy lot, Dr. Gerard."
"The mind can be stunted and warped as well as the body." "They're bright mentally too." Gerard sighed.
Jefferson Cope went on: "No, Dr. Gerard, take it from me, a man has got the control of his own destiny right there in his own hands.
A man who respects himself strikes out on his own and makes something of his life. He doesn't just sit round and twiddle his thumbs.
No woman ought to respect a man who does that."
Gerard looked at him curiously for a minute or two, then he said:
"You refer particularly, I think, to Mr. Lennox Boynton?"
"Why, yes, it was Lennox I was thinking of.
Raymond's only a boy still. But Lennox is just on thirty.
Time he showed he was made of something."