"Evidently. In the meanwhile I belong to the common herd——"
"No, no! Madeline," he interrupted, quickly.
"My father was only a working man," she went on, "and across the water we have no blue bloods; we have blue noses, but that's another matter, but we're all on the same footing there."
"Not socially, and dollars in America count for what name and titles count for here."
"But I haven't even the dollars," she said, with a laugh.
"But you have," he protested, quickly. "That is—I mean—you have not to work for your living. You are not a type-writer girl, or anything of that sort."
"And should I be any the worse if I were?"
"Well, of course, Madeline, you would be a lady anywhere, or under any circumstances," he said, grandiloquently.
"Thank you, Gervase, but suppose we get back again now to the point we started from."