position in which we happen to find ourselves."

"I don't understand it," said Selma, shaking her head and looking into
space with her spiritual expression. "It troubles me. It isn't American.
I didn't think such distinctions existed in this country. Is it all a
question of money, then? Do intelligence and--er--purpose count for
nothing?"

"My dear girl, it simply means that the people who are on top--the
people who, by force of success, or ability, or money, are most
prominent in the community, associate together, and the world gives a
certain prominence to their doings. Here, where fortunes have been made
so rapidly, and we have no formal aristocracy, money undoubtedly plays a
conspicuous part in giving access to what is known as society. But it is
only an entering wedge. Money supplies the means to cultivate manners
and the right way of looking at things, and good society represents the
best manners and, on the whole, the best way of looking at things."

"Yes. But you say that we don't belong to it."

"We do in the broad, but not in the narrow sense. We have neither the
means nor the time to take part in fashionable society. Surely, Selma,
you have no such ambition?"

"I? You know I disapprove of everything of the sort. It is like Europe.
There's nothing American in it."

"I don't know about that. The people concerned in it are Americans. If a
man has made money there is no reason why he shouldn't build a handsome
house, maintain a fine establishment, give his children the best