circle of talk converge, are sorted out, accepted, rejected, judged
and sanctioned. There it is finally decided in each phase of a
discussion which authorities and which sources of information are
admissible, and which not.

Our social set consists of those who figure as people in the phrase
"people are saying"; they are the people whose approval matters most
intimately to us. In big cities among men and women of wide interests
and with the means for moving about, the social set is not so rigidly
defined. But even in big cities, there are quarters and nests of
villages containing self-sufficing social sets. In smaller communities
there may exist a freer circulation, a more genuine fellowship from
after breakfast to before dinner. But few people do not know,
nevertheless, which set they really belong to, and which not.

Usually the distinguishing mark of a social set is the presumption
that the children may intermarry. To marry outside the set involves,
at the very least, a moment of doubt before the engagement can be
approved. Each social set has a fairly clear picture of its relative
position in the hierarchy of social sets. Between sets at the same
level, association is easy, individuals are quickly accepted,
hospitality is normal and unembarrassed. But in contact between sets
that are "higher" or "lower," there is always reciprocal hesitation, a
faint malaise, and a consciousness of difference. To be sure in a
society like that of the United States, individuals move somewhat
freely out of one set into another, especially where there is no
racial barrier and where economic position changes so rapidly.

Economic position, however, is not measured by the amount of income.
For in the first generation, at least, it is not income that