a case in hand, suppose a highly educated and refined man for some
reason swept a store out every morning, what would you call him?" and
she looked around as if she had given a poser.

The colorless young ladies looked blank--their natural expression.

"Nonsense!" said the positive Miss Brown; "such men don't sweep stores.
He may have passed current in some country village, but that is not
our set."

"But the case is certainly supposable," retorted Miss Winthrop, more
intent upon her argument than upon Dennis. "Come, what does the Countess
say?" she asked, turning to Christine; for that was the familiar name
by which she went among her young companions.

"The case is not supposable, but actual," she answered, so distinctly
that it seemed that she meant Dennis to hear. "As far as I have any
means of judging, he is a refined, educated man, and I have learned
from papa that his motive in sweeping the store is the support of his
mother and sisters--certainly a very worthy one. To your question,
Susie, I answer unhesitatingly that in accordance with your American
principles and professions he is a gentleman, and you ought to treat
him as such. But you Americans are sometimes wonderfully inconsistent,
and there is often a marvellously wide margin between your boasted
equality and the reality. Now in Europe these questions have been
settled for ages, and birth and rank define a person's position
accurately."

"I do not believe in equality," said Miss Brown, with a toss of her
head. (Her father was a mighty brewer, but he and hers were in character