“And yet they are common people for all that,” persevered Mrs. Marygold.  “Wasn’t old Clayton a mere petty dealer in small wares.  And wasn’t Mrs. Clayton’s father a mechanic?”

“Perhaps, if some of us were to go back for a generation or two, we might trace out an ancestor who held no higher place in society,” Mrs. Lemmington remarked, quietly.  “I have no doubt but that I should.”

“I have no fears of that kind,” replied Mrs. Marygold, in an exulting tone.  “I shall never blush when my pedigree is traced.”

“Nor I neither, I hope.  Still, I should not wonder if some one of my ancestors had disgraced himself, for there are but few families that are not cursed with a spotted sheep.  But I have nothing to do with that, and ask only to be judged by what I am—­not by what my progenitors have been.”

“A standard that few will respect, let me tell you.”

“A standard that far the largest portion of society will regard as the true one, I hope,” replied Mrs. Lemmington.  “But, surely, you do not intend refusing to call upon the Claytons for the reason you have assigned, Mrs. Marygold.”

“Certainly I do.  They are nothing but common people, and therefore beneath me.  I shall not stoop to associate with them.”

“I think that I will call upon them.  In fact, my object in dropping in this morning was to see if you would not accompany me,” said Mrs. Lemmington.

“Indeed, I will not, and for the reasons I have given.  They are only common people.  You will be stooping.”

“No one stoops in doing a kind act.  Mrs. Clayton is a stranger in the neighborhood, and is entitled to the courtesy of a call, if no more; and that I shall extend to her.  If I find her to be uncongenial in her tastes, no intimate acquaintanceship need be formed.  If she is congenial, I will add another to my list of valued friends.  You and I, I find, estimate differently.  I judge every individual by merit, you by family, or descent.”

“You can do as you please,” rejoined Mrs. Marygold, somewhat coldly.  “For my part, I am particular about my associates.  I will visit Mrs. Florence, and Mrs. Harwood, and such an move in good society, but as to your schoolteachers’ wives and daughters, I must beg to be excused.”

“Every one to her taste,” rejoined Mrs. Lemmington, with a smile, as she moved towards the door, where she stood for a few moments to utter some parting compliments, and then withdrew.

Five minutes afterwards she was shown into Mrs. Clayton’s parlors, where, in a moment or two, she was met by the lady upon whom she had called, and received with an air of easy gracefulness, that at once charmed her.  A brief conversation convinced her that Mrs. Clayton was, in intelligence and moral worth, as far above Mrs. Marygold, as that personage imagined herself to be above her.  Her daughters, who came in while she sat conversing with their mother, showed themselves to possess all those graces of mind and manner that win upon our admiration so irresistably.  An hour passed quickly and pleasantly, and then Mrs. Lemmington withdrew.