At last, with the decision of conscious superiority,
and the judicial air afforded by the precision of utterance
belonging to her class--a precision so strangely conjoined with
the lack of truth and logic both--she said, in a tone that gave
to the merest puerility the consequence of a judgment between
contending sages:
"The difference is, that the nobleman is born to ease and dignity
and affluence, and the--shopkeeper to buy and sell for his
living."
"Many a nobleman," suggested Mary, "buys and sells without the
necessity of making a living."
"That is the difference," said Hesper.
"Then the nobleman buys and sells to make money, and the
shopkeeper to make a living?"
"Yes," granted Hesper, lazily.
"Which is the nobler end--to live, or to make money?" But this
question was too far beyond Hesper. She did not even choose to
hear it.
"And," she said, resuming her definition instead, "the nobleman
deals with great things, the shopkeeper with small."
"When things are finally settled," said Mary--"Gracious, Mary!"
cried Hesper, "what do you mean? Are not things settled for good
this many a century? I am afraid I have been harboring an awful
radical!--a--what do they call it?--a communist!"
She would have turned the whole matter out of doors, for she was
tired of it.
"Things hardly look as if they were going to remain just as they
are at this precise moment," said Mary.
Pages:
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382