"My dear, how often must I beg you not to use that word _awfully_, except in its correct sense? Remember that we hold the English tongue in trust--it belongs to the nation and not to us--and we have no more right to profane England's language by the introduction of coined words and slang expressions than we have to disendow her institutions or to pollute her rivers." "All right; I'll try not to forget again. But you really do think Alan is clever, don't you?" "He is undoubtedly intelligent, and possesses the knack of appearing even more intelligent than he is; but at present he has not learned his own limitations." "You mean that he isn't clever enough to know that he isn't cleverer," suggested Elisabeth. "Well, my dear, I should never have put it in that way, but that approximately expresses my ideas about our young friend." "And he is aw--I mean frightfully well off." Miss Farringdon looked sternly at the speaker. "Never again let me hear you refer to the income of persons about whom you are speaking, Elisabeth; it is a form of ill-breeding which I can not for a moment tolerate in my house. That money is a convenience to the possessor of it, I do not attempt to deny; but that the presence or the absence of it should be counted as a matter of any moment (except to the man himself), presupposes a standpoint of such vulgarity that it is impossible for me to discuss it. And even the man himself should never talk about it; he should merely silently recognise the fact, and regulate his plan of life accordingly." "Still, I have heard quite nice people sometimes say that they can not afford things," argued Elisabeth. "I do not deny that; even quite nice people make mistakes sometimes, and well-mannered persons are not invariably well-mannered. Your quite nice people would have been still nicer had they realized that to talk about one's poverty--though not so bad as talking about one's wealth--is only one degree better; and that perfect gentle-people would refer neither to the one nor to the other." "I see." Elisabeth's tone was subdued. "I once knew a woman," continued Miss Farringdon, "who, by that accident of wealth, which is of no interest to anybody but the possessor, was enabled to keep a butler and two footmen; but in speaking of her household to a friend, who was less richly endowed with worldly goods than herself, she referred to these three functionaries as 'my parlourmaid,' for fear of appearing to be conscious of her own superiority in this respect. Now this woman, though kind-hearted, was distinctly vulgar."