“How,” says Mrs. Veneering, laying down her fork to press her aquiline hands together at the tips of the fingers, and addressing the Father who travels the three thousand miles per week: “how a mother can look at her baby, and know that she lives beyond her husband’s means, I cannot imagine.”

Eugene suggests that Mrs. Lammle, not being a mother, had no baby to look at.

“True,” says Mrs. Veneering, “but the principle is the same.”

Boots is clear that the principle is the same. So is Buffer. It is the unfortunate destiny of Buffer to damage a cause by espousing it. The rest of the company have meekly yielded to the proposition that the principle is the same, until Buffer says it is; when instantly a general murmur arises that the principle is not the same.