"She has 'tried'-- ?" "She has seen cases where she would have liked to." "But she has not been able ?" "Well, there are more cases, in Europe, in which it doesn't come to girls who are poor than in which it does come to them.

Especially," said Maggie with her continued competence, "when they're Americans." Well, her father now met her, and met her cheerfully, on all sides.
"Unless you mean," he suggested, "that when the girls are American there are more cases in which it comes to the rich than to the poor." She looked at him good-humouredly.

"That may be--but I'm not going to be smothered in MY case.

It ought to make me--if I were in danger of being a fool--all the nicer to people like Charlotte.

It's not hard for ME," she practically explained, "not to be ridiculous--unless in a very different way.