Laura’s scorn was boundless.  The more she thought of these people and their extraordinary talk, the more offensive they seemed to her; and yet she confessed that if one must choose between the two extreme aristocracies it might be best, on the whole, looking at things from a strictly business point of view, to herd with the Parvenus; she was in Washington solely to compass a certain matter and to do it at any cost, and these people might be useful to her, while it was plain that her purposes and her schemes for pushing them would not find favor in the eyes of the Antiques.  If it came to choice—­and it might come to that, sooner or later—­she believed she could come to a decision without much difficulty or many pangs.

But the best aristocracy of the three Washington castes, and really the most powerful, by far, was that of the Middle Ground:  It was made up of the families of public men from nearly every state in the Union—­men who held positions in both the executive and legislative branches of the government, and whose characters had been for years blemishless, both at home and at the capital.  These gentlemen and their households were unostentatious people; they were educated and refined; they troubled themselves but little about the two other orders of nobility, but moved serenely in their wide orbit, confident in their own strength and well aware of the potency of their influence.  They had no troublesome appearances to keep up, no rivalries which they cared to distress themselves about, no jealousies to fret over.  They could afford to mind their own affairs and leave other combinations to do the same or do otherwise, just as they chose.  They were people who were beyond reproach, and that was sufficient.

Senator Dilworthy never came into collision with any of these factions.  He labored for them all and with them all.  He said that all men were brethren and all were entitled to the honest unselfish help and countenance of a Christian laborer in the public vineyard.

Laura concluded, after reflection, to let circumstances determine the course it might be best for her to pursue as regarded the several aristocracies.

Now it might occur to the reader that perhaps Laura had been somewhat rudely suggestive in her remarks to Mrs. Oreille when the subject of corals was under discussion, but it did not occur to Laura herself.  She was not a person of exaggerated refinement; indeed, the society and the influences that had formed her character had not been of a nature calculated to make her so; she thought that “give and take was fair play,” and that to parry an offensive thrust with a sarcasm was a neat and legitimate thing to do.  She some times talked to people in a way which some ladies would consider, actually shocking; but Laura rather prided herself upon some of her exploits of that character.  We are sorry we cannot make her a faultless heroine; but we cannot, for the reason that she was human.