“Do you know,” he said, presently, “that, through your influence, Miss Trevennon, I have been gradually undergoing certain changes in my points of view. I am getting an insight into your social basis and system, and, stubborn Yankee as I am, I must admit that there’s something fine in it. I really think I begin to feel myself veering perceptibly. Until I met you, I had no idea what a difference there was between the Northern and Southern ideas of these matters.” “But I must not be taken as a strict representative of the Southern idea--nor you, I suppose, for a strict representative of the Northern idea,” said Margaret. “At home, they think me a great radical. I have no special respect for pedigrees in general. That one’s forefathers should have been honest is the first thing, it seems to me, and that they should have been social luminaries should come a long way after.” “You rather amaze me in that,” said Louis. “I thought there were no sticklers for birth and ancestry like the Southerners.” “It is perfectly true of a large class of them,” said Margaret; “but I have seen too much of the degeneration of distinguished families in the South, to have much sympathy with that idea. In too many cases they have lacked the spirit to save them from such degeneration, and, that being the case, what does their blood go for? It ought to go for nothing, I think--worse than nothing, for if it has any virtue at all, it should make its possessors independent and manly.” “You have sometimes sneered a little gentle sneer at the Gaston pride--have you not?” said Louis; “and I’ve sometimes thought it odd, because I had always been told that the pride of the Southern people is unprecedented.” “It is of a different sort,” said Margaret; “for instance----” But she checked herself, and colored. “Oh, pray give me the example,” said Louis, earnestly. “Illustrations are such helps. I beg you will not let any over-sensibility prevent your speaking plainly. It may be that you’ve got the best of these social questions. I want to be able to judge.” “How honest and fair you are!” said Margaret, “and how rare that spirit is! I really think I’ll tell you frankly what I was going to say. You know what an appreciation of your brother I have, and how entirely his fine qualities command my respect, but I will not deny that his bearing in the matter of this invitation has amazed me. I think I am safe in saying that no Southern man, in your brother’s sphere of society, could possibly be found--no matter how insulated or behind the times he might be--no matter how poor or incapable or ignorant, who could be agitated and flattered by an invitation from General Morton or General anybody else. The notion would never penetrate their brains. But I am very bold,” she said, checking herself suddenly. “I am afraid I have said too much.”