oxes. You need not fear to speak the truth, as I am an entire
stranger."

"If I do, as a friend I shall expect you to let my opinions go no
further."

"_Cela va sans dire._"

"You must first understand, then, that every man here has an employment.
We have absolutely no 'unemployed rich'."

"Idleness must be at a premium."

"On the contrary it is tabooed. However, though we are all in trade we
have distinctions as intricate as the most ancient aristocracy."

"How so?"

"In the peculiar meshes from which society is woven. For example: a
wholesale dry-goods merchant is an aristocrat, a retailer a plebeian; a
hotel keeper may be a lord, a restaurant keeper a commoner; a car
builder is a prince, a carriage builder a burgher; a brewer may be a
count, a beer seller a churl; and so on, although even if a member of a
certain trade is in society, his _confreres_ may be without the pale."

"Much the same as in New York, only there hotels and dry goods are
commoners, while tobacco and skins are lords."

"Yes, but at least society is older there. The skins have been buried
for a generation or two."

"In some cases, yes, but in others they are still uncured. I am a
working man myself, and I must defend my class."

"But surely you have respect for established institutions."

"Yes, but not for dead ancestors. Suppose I search through the dusty
archives of the Herald's College for a drop of Norman blood; I find that
it was spilt on Saxon land by some hireling freebooter, or landgrabber,
who followed at the heels of a conscienceless adventurer."

"You are republican enough to please the taste of my friend, Miss
Moreland."

"I fear you misunderstand me. I am not patriotic, or republican, or
anything else, for that matter."

"Except the incarnation of contrariety."

"I hate polemics, so I will cry _touche_ as one does in fencing after a
thrust, and end the contest."

"You mean you would rather thrust than parry. You men are all alike. You
told the truth when you expressed a fondness for being pampered, and, as
it is the duty of our sex to be compliant, I await your pleasure."

"If I am to be so indulged, I confess to feeling a craving to hear the
promised lecture about those people across the way."

"I would willingly comply but that falling curtain says it must again be
deferred. On second thought, perhaps it would be better to give you an
object lesson, so if you will come and see me to-morrow about five, I
will