“That's exactly what makes everything about that man intolerable to me,” said Nelly. “The degree of intimacy between people is not to be measured by the inferior.”
“I will have no discussions, no interruptions,” said Julia. “If there are to be comments, they must be made by me.”
“That's tyranny, I think,” cried Nelly.
“I call it more than arrogance,” said Augustus.
“My dear Bramleigh,” continued Julia, reading aloud, “I followed the old Viscount down here, not in the best of tempers, I assure you; and though not easily outwitted or baffled in such matters, it was not till after a week that I succeeded in getting an audience. There's no denying it, he 's the best actor on or off the boards in Europe. He met me coldly, haughtily. I had treated him badly, forsooth, shamefully; I had not deigned a reply to any of his letters. He had written me three—he was n't sure there were not four letters—to Rome. He had sent me cards for the Pope's chapel—cards for Cardinal Somebody's receptions—cards for a concert at St. Paul's, outside the walls. I don't know what attentions he had not showered on me, nor how many of his high and titled friends had not called at a hotel where I never stopped, or left their names with a porter I never saw. I had to wait till he poured forth all this with a grand eloquence, at once disdainful and damaging; the peroration being in this wise—that such lapses as mine were things unknown in the latitudes inhabited by well-bred people. 'These things are not done, Mr. Cutbill,' said he, arrogantly; 'these things are not done! You may call them trivial omissions, mere trifles, casual forgetful-ness, and such like; but even men who have achieved distinction, who have won fame and honors and reputation, as I am well aware is your case, would do well to observe the small obligations which the discipline of society enforces, and condescend to exchange that small coin of civilities which form the circulating medium of good manners.' When he had delivered himself of this he sat down overpowered; and though I, in very plain language, told him that I did not believe a syllable about the letters, nor accept one word of the lesson, he only fanned himself and bathed his temples with rose-water, no more heeding me or my indignation than if I had been one of the figures on his Japanese screen.
“'You certainly said you were stopping at the “Minerva,”' said he.
“'I certainly told your Lordship I was at Spilman's.'
“He wanted to show me why this could not possibly be the case—how men like himself never made mistakes, and men like me continually did so—that the very essence of great men's lives was to attach importance to those smaller circumstances that inferior people disregarded, and so on; but I simply said, 'Let us leave that question where it is, and go on to a more important one. Have you had time to look over my account?'
“'If you had received the second of those letters you have with such unfeigned candor assured me were never written, you'd have seen that I only desire to know the name of your banker in town, that I may order my agent to remit the money.'
“'Let us make no more mistakes about an address, my Lord,' said I. 'I 'll take a check for the amount now,' and he gave it. He sat down and wrote me an order on Hedges and Holt, Pall Mall, for fifteen hundred pounds.