“And yet you 'd refuse him admission into a club,” cried Martin.
“Certainly. A club is a Democracy, where each man, once elected, is the equal of his neighbor. Society is, on the other hand, an absolute monarchy, where your rank flows from the fountain of honor,—the host. Take him along with you to her Grace's 'tea,' or my Lady's reception this evening, and see if the manner of the mistress of the house does not assign him his place, as certainly as if he were marshalled to it by a lackey. All his mock tranquillity and assumed ease of manner will not be proof against the icy dignity of a grande dame; but in the Club he's as good as the best, or he'll think so, which comes to the same thing.”
“Cavendish is right,—that is, as much so as he can be in anything,” said Willoughby, laughing. “Don't put him up, Martin.”
“Then what am I to do? I have given a sort of a pledge. He is not easily put off; he does not lightly relinquish an object.”
“Take him off the scent. Introduce him at the Embassy. Take him to the Courcelles.”
“This is intolerable,” broke in Martin, angrily. “I ask for advice, and you reply by a sneer and a mockery.”
“Not at all. I never was more serious. But here he comes! Look only how the fellow lolls back in the phaeton. Just see how contemptuously he looks down on the foot-travellers. I'd lay on another hundred for that stare; for, assuredly, he has already made the purchase in his own mind.”
“Well, Merl, what do you say to Sir Spencer's taste in horseflesh?” said Martin, as he entered.
“They 're nice hacks; very smart.”
“Nice hacks!” broke in Cavendish, “why, sir, they're both thoroughbred; the near horse is by Tiger out of a Crescent mare, and the off one won the Acton steeple-chase. When you said hacks, therefore, you made a cruel blunder.”