"Tell me about father?" coaxed Alexina, who was repentant, now that the excitement of the day had reached its climax in the baiting of her admirable sister and was rapidly subsiding. "Mother let fall something this morning; and once Aileen ... she began, but shut up like a clam. Was he so very dreadful?" "Well, since you know so much, he was what is called fast. Married men of his position often were in his day--quite openly. Yesterday, I should have hesitated--" "Fire away. Don't mind me. Yes, I know what fast is. Lots of men are to-day. Even members of the A. A." "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 girls--have a ripping time." "At least they have not picked up your vocabulary. I seldom see the young people. And I have never been to the Club. I am told the women drink and smoke quite openly on the verandah." "You may bet your sweet life they do. They are honest, and quite as sure of their position as you are. But tell me about father. How did mother come to marry him? If he was such a naughty person I should think she would have exercised the sound Ballinger instincts and thrown him down." "Mother met him in Washington. Grandfather Ballinger was senator at the time--" "From Virginia or California?"