terribly unimportant that the only way they knew to pretend to be
important was calling people 'little' Miss or Mister so-and-so. It's
a kind of snob slang, I think. Of course people don't always say
'rather' or 'in a way' to be superior."

"I should say not! I use both of 'em a great deal myself," said
George. "One thing I don't see though: What's the use of a man being
six-feet-three? Men that size can't handle themselves as well as a man
about five-feet-eleven and a half can. Those long, gangling men,
they're nearly always too kind of wormy to be any good in athletics,
and they're so awkward they keep falling over chairs or--"

"Mr. Pembroke is in the army," said Lucy primly. "He's
extraordinarily graceful."

"In the army? Oh, I suppose he's some old friend of your father's."

"They got on very well," she said, "after I introduced them."

George was a straightforward soul, at least. "See here!" he said.
"Are you engaged to anybody?"

"No."

Not wholly mollified, he shrugged his shoulders. "You seem to know a
good many people! Do you live in New York?"

"No. We don't live anywhere."

"What you mean: you don't live anywhere?"