"Is it wise of you—you will pardon, I hope, my interference— but is it wise of you to be so kind to a person of that sort?"
"A person? Is he a person?" asked Miss Firs-Robinson with much airy astonishment. "I quite understood he was a man of good family. Whereas a 'person' must be of no family whatever."
"If without money," put in Lord Ambert quickly, "quite so. There are, of course, grades."
"Grades?"
"Yes. A man of no birth with money is not the same as a man of no birth without it. For money educates, refines, elevates." This he pointed with little emphases, as a small hint to her.
"And a man of birth without money?"
"Sinks." Here Lord Ambert's voice took even a lower tone. "Sinks until he meets the extreme—that is, the lowest of all classes—with which he unites. I am afraid that young man you have just been talking to will come to that end. His people, I believe, were in a decent set at one time; but there is no money there now, and probably he will marry his landlady's daughter, or the young woman who manages the school in the village, and— repent it soon after."
"Repentance is good for the soul," said Elfrida; she laughed.
"But as you show it, money is everything. Even the 'person' can be raised by it."
"It is sad of course, but I am afraid that is really the case. In these days money is of great importance—of nearly as great importance as birth or position. It lifts the 'person,' as you call it—-"