"If you have capital in America, you can have individuality; if you
haven't, you can't."
His sister, who had not taken part in the talk before, said, demurely: "It
seems to me you've got a good deal of individuality, Reub, and you haven't
got a great deal of capital, either," and the two young people laughed
together.
Mrs. Makely was one of those fatuous women whose eagerness to make a point
excludes the consideration even of their own advantage. "I'm sure," she
said, as if speaking for the upper classes, "we haven't got any
individuality at all. We are as like as so many peas or pins. In fact, you
have to be so in society. If you keep asserting your own individuality too
much, people avoid you. It's very vulgar and the greatest bore."
"Then you don't find individuality so desirable, after all," said the
Altrurian.
"I perfectly detest it!" cried the lady, and evidently she had not the
least notion where she was in the argument. "For my part, I'm never happy
except when I've forgotten myself and the whole individual bother."
Her declaration seemed somehow to close the incident, and we were all
silent a moment, which I employed in looking about the room, and taking in
with my literary sense the simplicity and even bareness of its furnishing.
Pages:
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161