l algebra," sighed Marion. "It is utterly
impossible for me to get it into my head, and Dorothy takes to it like a
duck to water, and she is a born teacher. Madame Castle says her
aptitude for imparting knowledge amounts to genius. You must allow it
was kind of her, Isabelle."

Isabelle shrugged her shoulders. "Self-interested, most likely. That
sort of people would do anything to obtain a foothold."

"Oh, Isabelle!" cried Evadne. "Do have a little faith in your
fellow-man! Why should you set yourself up on a pinnacle and despise
everyone who is poor, when the father of us all hoed for a living?"

Louis looked up from the paper he was reading. "There are two things
Isabelle has no faith in, Evadne. The Declaration of Independence and
the book she loaned you. One says all men are free and equal,--the other
that God has made of one blood all the nations of the earth. Her Serene
Highness objects to this. She will have the blue blood come in
somewhere, though where she gets it from heaven only knows!"

"Louis, I do wish you would not be so radical!" Isabelle said,
peevishly. "You must admit there is such a thing as culture and
refinement."

"Certainly I admit it. The only thing I object to is that you talk as if
you possessed a monopoly of the article, whereas I hold that it is just
a question of environment. It is no thanks to you that you were not born
a Hottentot or a Choctaw. Give yourself the same ancestors and
surroundings as your chimney-sweep and wherein would you be superior to
him? And when it comes to ancestry, by the way, probably Miss Bruce can
trace back to some of the grand old Highland chiefs who covered
themselves with glory long before the lineage of Hildreth had emerged
from obscurity."

"I don't know anyone who likes to choose his company better than you!"
observed Isabelle sarcastically.

"Certainly I do. Similarity of environment presupposes similarity of
tastes. Probably my idea of enjoyment would not accord with the
chimney-sweep's, but at the same time I don't look down on the poor
beggar because he hasn't been as fortunate as I in getting his bread
well buttered. There is a law of cultivation for humanity as well as
plants. Surround a succession of generations with all the advantages of
wealth, education and travel, and you produce the aristocrat; just as
you get the delicate Solanum Wendlandi from the humble potato blossom.
Set your aristocrat in the wilderness to earn his living by the sw