“Call her an old one.”
“Oh, you make age the only distinction?”
“There ain’t any other to make as far as I can see.”
“Then all women are ladies?”
“Certainly they are. All the respectable ones.”
“Well, that puts a better face on it. Certainly there is no harm in a title when it is given to everybody. It is only an offense and a wrong when it is restricted to a favored few. But Miss—er—”
“Hattie.”
“Miss Hattie, be frank; confess that that title isn’t accorded by everybody to everybody. The rich American doesn’t call her cook a lady—isn’t that so?”
“Yes, it’s so. What of it?”
He was surprised and a little disappointed, to see that his admirable shot had produced no perceptible effect.