were but spoken, I could clearly discern the capital M in their
acid utterance.)

Of course I was not present officially, so to speak. Down below,
in my sub-world of chair-legs and hearthrugs and the undersides
of sofas, I was working out my own floor-problems, while they
babbled on far above my head, considering me as but a chair-leg,
or even something lower in the scale. Yet I was listening hard
all the time, with that respectful consideration one gives to
all grown-up people's remarks, so long as one knows no better.

It seemed a serious indictment enough, as they rolled it out. In
tact, considerateness, and right appreciation, as well as in
taste and aesthetic sensibilities--we failed at every point, we
breeched and bearded prentice-jobs of Nature; and I began to feel
like collapsing on the carpet from sheer spiritual anaemia. But
when one of them, with a swing of her skirt, prostrated a whole
regiment of my brave tin soldiers, and never apologized nor even
offered her aid toward revivifying the battle-line, I could not
help feeling that in tactfulness and consideration for others she
was still a little to seek. And I said as much, with some
directness of language.

That was the end of me, from a society point of view. Rudeness
to visitors was the unpardonable sin, and in two seconds I
had my marching orders, and was sullenly wending my way to the
St. Elelena of the nursery. As I climbed the stair, my thoughts
reverted somehow to a game we had been playing that very morning.

It was the good old game of Rafts,--a game that will be played