"
"Would the Colonel go, if you went?"
"I hardly think so. It wouldn't be quite so proper."
"I don't understand," remarked Isabel, wrinkling her pretty brows.
"I don't either," Madame replied, confidentially. "However, I've lived
long enough to learn that the conventions of society are all in the
interests of morality. If you're conventional, you'll be good, in a
negative sense, of course."
"How do you mean, Aunt Francesca?"
"Perfect manners are diametrically opposed to crime. For instance, it is
very bad form for a man to shoot a lady, or even to write another man's
name on a check and cash it. It saves trouble to be conventional, for
you're not always explaining things. Most of the startling items we read
in the newspapers are serious lapses from conventionality and good
manners."
"The Crosbys aren't very conventional," Isabel suggested.
"No," smiled Madame, "they're not, but their manners proceed from the
most kindly and friendly instincts, consequently they're seldom in
error, essentially."
"They have lots of money, haven't they?"
"I have sometimes thought that the Crosbys had more than their age and
social training fitted them to use wisely, but I've never known them to
go far astray.
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