By George, _I_ don't; I'm from
Missouri."
Mr. Warren, being in the Sophomore class at Yale, was of the age when
one is constitutionally "from Missouri." Probably King Solomon, at
sixty, had doubts concerning the scope and depth of his wisdom; at
eighteen he would have admitted its all-embracing infallibility without
a blush.
"I tell you," continued Stephen, "there's no sense in it, Sis. You and
I know plenty of people whose incomes are no larger than ours. Do they
'economize,' as Graves is continually preaching? They do not, publicly
at least. They may save a bit, here and there, but they do it where it
doesn't show and nobody knows. Take the Blaisdells, for instance. When
the Sodality Bank went up, and old Blaisdell died, everybody said the
family was down and out. They must have lost millions. But did THEY move
into 'apartments' and put up a placard, 'Home of the Dead-Brokes. Walk
in and Sympathize?' I guess they didn't! They went into mourning, of
course, and that let them out of entertaining and all that, but they
stayed where they were and kept up the bluff. That's the thing that
counts in this world--keeping up the bluff."
"Yes, but everyone knows they are--bluffing, as you call it."
"What of it? They don't really know, they only suspect.
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