human
Do you mean to say there are no distinctions?
gpt
Oh, no; there are plenty of official distinctions, and a code that is very curious and complicated, I believe. But still society is open.
human
It must be--pardon me--a good deal like a mob.
gpt
Well, our mobs of that sort are said to be very well behaved. Mr. Morgan says that Washington is the only capital in the world where the principle of natural selection applies to society; that it is there shown for the first time that society is able to take care of itself in the free play of democratic opportunities.
human
It must be very interesting to see that.
gpt
I hope you will find it so. The resident diplomats, I have heard, say that they find society there more agreeable than at any other capital--at least those who have the qualities to make themselves agreeable independent of their rank.
human
Is there nothing like a court? I cannot see who sets the mode.
gpt
Officially there may be something like a court, but it can be only temporary, for the personnel of it is dissolved every four years. And society, always forming and reforming, as the voters of the republic dictate, is almost independent of the Government, and has nothing of the social caste of Berlin or London.
human
You make quite an ideal picture.
gpt
Oh, I dare say it is not at all ideal; only it is rather fluid, and interesting, to see how society, without caste and subject to such constant change, can still be what is called 'society.' And I am told that while it is all open in a certain way, it nevertheless selects itself into agreeable groups, much as society does elsewhere. Yes, you ought to see what a democracy can do in this way.
human
But I am told that money makes your aristocracy here.
gpt
Very likely rich people think they are an aristocracy. You see, Mr. Lyon, I don't know much about the great world. Mrs. Fletcher, whose late husband was once a Representative in Washington, says that life is not nearly so simple there as it used to be, and that rich men in the Government, vying with rich men who have built fine houses and who live there permanently without any Government position, have introduced an element of expense and display that interferes very much with the natural selection of which Mr. Morgan speaks. But you will see. We are all right sorry to have you leave us,
human
It is very good in you to say so. I have spent here the most delightful days of my life.
gpt
Oh, that is charming flattery. You will make us all very conceited.
human
Don't mock me, Miss Debree. I hoped I had awakened something more valuable to me than conceit,
gpt
You have, I assure you: gratitude. You have opened quite another world to us. Reading about foreign life does not give one at all the same impression of it that seeing one who is a part of it does.
human
And don't you want to see that life for yourself? I hope some time--
gpt
Of course, Margaret said, interrupting;
human
In fact, Miss Debree, he said, with effort at speaking lightly,
gpt
I fear I am not in a geographical mood today. I came to say good-by, and--and--
human
Shall I call my aunt?
gpt
No, I beg; I had something to say that concerns us; that is, that concerns myself. I couldn't go away without knowing from you--that is, without telling you--
human
Some other time; I beg you will not say--I trust that I have done nothing that--
gpt
Nothing, nothing, he went on quickly;
human
--he would not heed her hand raised in a gesture of protest; he stood nearer her now, his face flushed and his eyes eager with determination--
gpt
I am sorry.
human
Is that all?
gpt
That is all, Mr. Lyon,