“No; I mean certain kinds of bad things.”
“Such as cheating at cards?”
“No. If he were found doing that, he would be expelled from any club in London.”
“May he tell lies, then?”
“Certainly not! It is a very ungentlemanly thing to tell lies.”
“Then, if a man tells a lie, he is not a gentleman?”
“I do not say that; I say that to tell lies is ungentlemanly?”
“Does that mean that he may tell some lies, and yet be a gentleman?”
Lady Ann was afraid to go on. She saw that to go on answering the girl from the colonies, with her troublesome freedom of thought and question, might land her in a bog of contradictions.
“How many lies may a gentleman tell in a day?” pursued the straight-going Barbara.