"A. A.?"

"Ancient Aristocracy. The kind England and France would like to have."

"I'm ashamed of you. Have you no pride of blood? The best blood of the
South, to say nothing of--"

"I'm tickled to death. I just dote on being a Groome, plus Ballinger, plus.
And I'm not guying, neither. I'd hate like the mischief to be second rate,
no matter what I won later. It must be awful to have to try to get to
places that should be yours by divine right, as it were. But all that's no
reason for being a moss-back, a back number, for not having any fun--to
be glued to the ancestral rock like a lot of old limpets....And it should
preserve us from being snobs," she added.

"Snobs?"

"The 'I will maintain' sort, as Aileen puts it."

"Don't quote that dreadful child to me. I haven't an atom of snobbery in my
composition. I reserve the right to know whom I please, and to exclude from
my house people to whom I cannot accustom myself. Why I know quite a number
of people at Burlingame. I dined there informally last night."

"Yes, because it has the fascination for you that wine has for the
clergyman's son." Alexina once more yielded to temptation. "But the only
people you really know at Burlingame except Mrs. Hunter are those of the
old set, what you would call the pick of the bunch, if you were one of us.
They went there to live because they were tired of being moss-backs. Why
don't you follow their example and go the whole hog? They--and their