“I should not think they could get below it,” said she. “It is easy to get above it, if you only go the right way. How can you get below a thing which is down at the bottom?”
“But how would you do, Flora, not to be vulgar?”
“Learn good manners and then never think about them.”
“But you must keep, up your company manners,” said I.
“Why have any?” said she.
“What, always have one’s company manners on!” cried I, “and be courtesying and bowing to one’s sisters as if they were people one had never seen before?”
“Nay, those are ceremonies, not manners,” said Flora. “By manners, I do not understand ceremonies, but just the way you behave to anybody at any time. It is not a ceremony to set a chair for a lame man, nor to shut a door lest the draught blow on a sick woman. It is not a ceremony to eat with a knife and fork, or to see that somebody else is comfortable before you make yourself so.”
“Why, but that is just kindness!” cried I.
“What are manners but kindness?” said Flora. “Let a maiden only try to be as kind as she can to every creature of God, and she will not find much said in reproof of her manners.”
“Are you always trying to be kind to everybody, Flora?”