The Hon. Gerald St. John gave him his answer:
“Our mission is to educate, not to indulge in vulgar demonstrations, like Socialists and people of that kind. For my part I have never pretended to take any interest in Mary III. My quarrel is with respectability and I shall wait to see whether the new Court is respectable before I condemn it.”
Des Louvres bit his lip. “You English are always respectable,” he sneered.
“Not at all,” was the good-tempered answer. “Our middle class is always respectable, I grant you; but our aristocracy is generally wicked. And we have had lots of disreputable Kings. I have every hope that the Victorian Age will be succeeded by a Restoration.”
“Charles II. was a Stuart,” protested the Legitimist agent.
“Well, if it comes to that, I don’t know that your German Princess is any more of a Stuart than the people in possession. There seems to me very little to choose between Bavaria and Saxe-Coburg. George IV. was a man with many fine qualities.”
Des Louvres began to lose his temper.
“Of course, if anybody is afraid of the consequences I don’t expect them to come forward,” he said sneeringly.
The insult that cannot be pardoned is the one that we feel to be deserved. Egerton Vane, St. Maur, and the bridegroom-elect rose to their feet together.
“After that I shall go home. Come, Wickham,” cried the Chevalier. Mr. St. Maur was understood to mutter that if anything did happen the Comte des Louvres would probably be the first out of the country. Dyke inquired whether a foreigner was qualified to dictate to Englishmen their line of conduct at a national crisis.