y were all girls, and, as I remember them, ordinary."

"When men have acquired fame, it is hardly necessary to inquire if they
belong to the best families," I rejoined, borrowing a leaf from Aunt
Agnes's book.

"It is one thing to admire the works of genius, and another to have it
trampoosing over your house. Your acquaintances are, I dare say, well
enough as poets and philosophers, but I don't see what that has to do
with you. You are neither a poet nor a philosopher, and you will flatter
them much more by buying their books than by asking them to five o'clock
tea. I must say that, philosopher or no philosopher, the young man who
was talking with me has very strange ideas. Just think of his advocating
co-operative house-keeping, and marriages before a Justice of the Peace.
I fancy too that he is lax in his religious opinions. If he is your idea
of a desirable acquaintance to invite to your house, I am sorry for it.
You never got any such notions from my side of the family."

"It is useless to talk with you if you go off at a tangent, Aunt Helen,"
said I. "I am proud to call both those young men my friends, and they
are vastly superior in every way to nine tenths of those one meets in
society. Mr. Spence, whose ideas you think so peculiar, is one of the
ablest scientists in the country, and I am going to take lessons in his
philosophy from one of his assistants. As I told you the other day, I am
tired of frittering away my time in nonsense."

"And as I told _you_ the other day, Virginia, go on as you have begun,
and we shall hear of you presently on the stage. That Mr. Barr might
pass in a drawing-room on account of his picturesqueness, if he were to
brush his hair; but the other one is simply a gawk, to be plain. Science
indeed! Don't come in a few weeks to ask me to believe that we are all
descended from monkeys, or any other stuff, for I sha'n't do it. That's
what I call nonsense; and you will discover some day that most people
who have any self-respect are of my way of thinking."

I had never known Aunt Helen to be so excited, but there was nothing to
be done. Society and etiquette were her household gods; and by ceasing
to worship the same divinities I had drawn upon myself the full energy
of her displeasure. Nothing could have offended her so much. To be odd
or different from other people was in her estimation a cardinal sin;
whereas I parted from her with a still firmer conviction that I had
chosen wisely. Th