tion to criticize some points of
literary structure, and accepted the obvious meaning of this.

"Tell me what he really is."

"I have told you repeatedly. He is nothing--unless we palter with the
meaning of words--but a clerk in the office at the stores where we pay
a deposit and order goods on a form. They were originally haberdashers,
so I don't see how you can escape from what I have said. But I have
no doubt you will try to do so."

"How comes he to be such a magnificent violinist? Are they all...?"

"I know what you are going to say, and it's foolish. No, they are not
all magnificent violinists. But you know the story quite well."

"Perhaps I do. But now listen. I want to make out one thing. This
young man talked quite freely to me and Egerton about his place, his
position, salary--everything. And yet you say he isn't a gentleman."

"Of course he isn't a gentleman. I don't the least understand what
you mean. It's some prevarication or paradox." Mrs. Wilson taps the
chair-arm impatiently.

"I mean this--if he isn't a gentleman, how comes it that he isn't
ashamed of being a haberdasher? Because he _isn't_. Seemed to take
it all as a matter of course."

"I cannot follow your meaning at all. And I will not trouble you to
explain it. The question now is--will you, or will you not, _do_
something?"

"Has the young gentleman?"--Mrs. Wilson snorted audibly--"Well, has
this young haberdasher made any sort of definite declaration to
Laetitia?"

"I understand not. But it's impossible not to see."

"Would it not be a little premature for me to say anything to him?"

"Have I asked you to do so?"

"I am a little uncertain what it is you have asked me to do."

Mrs. Wilson contrived, by pantomime before she spoke, to express her
perfect patience under extremest trial, inflicted on her by an impudent
suggestion that she hadn't made her position clear. She would, however,
state her case once more with incisive distinctness. To that end she
separated her syllables, and accented selections from them, even as
a resolute hammer accents the head of a nail.

"Have I not told you dis_tinct_ly"--the middle syllable of this word
was a sample nailhead--"a _thou_sand times that what I wish you to
do--however much you may shirk doing it--is to _speak_ to Laetitia--to
remonstrate with her about the encouragement she is giving to this
young man, and to _point out_ to her that a girl in her position--in
short, the duties of a gi