Page:Despotism and democracy; a study in Washington society and politics (IA despotismdemocra00seawiala).pdf/29

 which her grandparents belonged. The young man's story was the same da capo, except that he was given a boy's luxuries instead of a girl's. It has been carefully concealed from them by their parents that their grandparents swept, dusted, chopped wood, traded at country stores, and did all those plain but useful and respectable things which made their fortune. To hear them talk about 'grandmamma' and 'grandpapa' is the very essence of simplicity."

"And yet those people constitute the most exclusive set in Washington," said Crane, angrily, as if thereby some wrong was inflicted on him.

"Naturally," replied Thorndyke. "Don't you see that the first result of their prosperity in their own community was to segregate them from their less fortunate friends and neighbours? Don't you see how inevitably it came about that their children were separated from their neighbours' children? And in the end they were drawn from the Circlevilles and the Meekins's Cross Roads by sheer necessity? They became fugitives, as it were, from their own class, and how natural it was for them to be afraid of their own and every other class except