Ninian: I was brought up with a sense of duty. My father said to me, “Ninian, remember five centuries of Candovers are watching you.”
Selina: Wasn’t he quoting Napoleon?
Ninian: Certainly not. In any case, he always referred to him as Bonaparte.
Selina: Oh, Ninian, was that a nice way of talking of the dead?
Lord William: How lucky that etiquette always prevents us from saying disagreeable things about the departed. It leaves so much more for the living.
Selina: But Lord Candover was a pioneer. He didn’t believe in respecting tombstones.
Ninian: I wish you wouldn’t twist my words, Selina. My father was most careful in speaking of the dead, and I am sure he would have hated to be called a pioneer.
Selina: I beg your pardon. He only felt free to insult the immortal.
Ninian: We are all of us immortal.