"Who said we were working for the conjurer?" asked Julia. "I said we were working to please ourselves."
"Then it seems to me very absurd to find pleasure in such nonsense," said Miss Cunningham.
"That is as people think; I see no difference between cutting out flowers and threading beads, which I think you were doing all yesterday; and if you do not like the work, you need not look at it."
"I am sure I do not want to look at that or the conjurer, or anything else," said Miss Cunningham; "tricks are far too vulgar to please me."
"But what do you mean by vulgar?" asked Dora.
"Vulgar?—why vulgar means—every one knows what it means."
"No," said Mary Warner, in her quick, decided tone; "every one does not know what it means, because no two people in the world think quite alike about it."
"Dear me! how silly you are!" exclaimed Miss Cunningham; "vulgar?—vulgar means common, I suppose."
"Then the conjurer is not vulgar, because his tricks are uncommon," said
Julia.
Miss Cunningham bit her lips and was silent; and Amy, who was becoming interested in the discussion, turned to Miss Morton, who had just entered the room, and asked her to tell them what things she thought were vulgar.