“Yes, I shall confess. I have been wanting to confess to you for some little time, and have felt guilty because I did not do so.”
“I am prepared to receive the confession,” replied the young man, lazily, “and to grant absolution.”
“Well, you talk a great deal about America and about Americans, and talk as if you were proud of the country, and of its ways, and of its people.”
“Why, I am,” answered the young man.
“Very well, then; according to your creed one person is just as good as another.”
“Oh, I don’t say that, I don’t hold that for a moment. I don’t think I am as good as you, for instance.”
“But what I mean is this, that one’s occupation does not necessarily give one a lower station than another. If that is not your belief then you are not a true American, that is all.”
“Well, yes, that is my belief. I will admit I believe all that. What of it?”
“What of it? There is this of it. You are the junior partner of a large establishment in New York?”
“Nothing criminal in that, is there?”