“How does she impress you?”
“I hardly know her well enough to form any definite opinion of her, though she has been kindness itself to me.”
“Yes, she has a sharp tongue, but a kind heart; and she does a great deal of good in the village; but, poor soul! she has no sense of humor—none whatever. Then of course she is not in society, you know. You will find, Mr. Maxwell, that social lines are very carefully drawn in this town; there are so many grades, and one has to be careful, you know.”
“Is it so! How many people are there in the town?”
“Possibly eight or nine hundred.”
“And how many of them are ‘in society’?”
“Oh, I should imagine not more than twenty or thirty.”
“They must be very select.”
“Oh, we are; quite so.”
“Don’t you ever get tired of seeing the same twenty or thirty all the time? I’m afraid I am sufficiently vulgar to like a change, once in a while—somebody real common, you know.” 45