"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. They've done foolish things, but I've never known either
to do a wrong or selfish thing. Money is a terrible test of character,
but I think the twins will survive it."

"I suppose they've done lots of funny things with it."

Madame's eyes danced and little smiles wrinkled the corners of her
mouth. "On the Fourth of July, last year, they presented every orphan in
the Orphans' Home with two dollars' worth of fireworks, carefully
chosen. Of course the inevitable happened and the orphans managed to set