“I doubt it,” said Miss Stott stolidly; “people are not as bloodthirsty as that, even if they are Radicals or Socialists. After all, human beings are very much alike in the grain whatever their rank, and none of us would care particularly to wade in blood.”

“Alike!” echoed Mrs. Dumaresq. “My dear Miss Stott, you are mistaken. Between the upper and the lower classes there is the greatest possible difference. They have not our sensitiveness, our refinement, our delicacy.” Mrs. Dumaresq said “our” to show she knew her manners, and to accentuate her diplomatic training.

“Do you think not?” queried Miss Stott. “Of course they have not external refinement, nor the advantages of education. But do you really think they are less sensitive, less delicate in their own way? Why, every day there are cases in the paper that seem to show Belgravia and Whitechapel are very much alike when their blood is up. The chief difference to me appears to be that 29the one does things and does not talk of them, while the other talks of them but does not do them.”

29

“My dear Miss Stott!” remonstrated Mrs. Dumaresq.

“Yes,” said Miss Stott, “why only to-day I read the account of an action taken by a servant against her mistress, a wealthy woman, who broke her fan on her maid’s shoulder.”

“How shocking!” said Mrs. Dumaresq. “But you must not judge the aristocracy by such persons. The woman, though she may have been rich, could not possibly have been a lady.”

“So I think,” replied Miss Stott; “no doubt, however, she considered herself one, for she was an Earl’s daughter.”

“Oh—h!” said Mrs. Dumaresq, with great surprise. “Then the maid must have been very provoking.”

A rattle of teacups announced the arrival of coffee.

Miss Prudence Semaphore, who was seated in the centre of the room near the lamp, looked round to see if any of the men had come up, and dropped her Pictorial. As she recovered it, an advertisement caught her eye.

30

To Ladies and Gentlemen of Means

“The widow of an eminent explorer, being in straitened circumstances, is compelled to offer for sale a single bottle of water from the Fountain of Youth, vainly sought in Florida by Ponce de Leon. Its 

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