"I can't say, not being a republican. I only know she is not fascinating. Her manners are odious, and then she has a most uncharitable tongue. She is just the sort of woman to give the worst impression of an English lady to foreigners."
"Do you call us foreigners?"
She laughed.
"What do you call yourselves? I am quite ready to accept your own definition."
"We call ourselves your sixth cousins—once removed."
"Very well; then you must not expect the privileges that attach to aliens."
"What are they? I never heard of them."
"Oh! it is a small matter, but one which some of your countrymen cavil at—the question of precedence. If we treat them as of our own family, and follow our own laws of etiquette, I have heard them say it was discourteous."
"Then they were fools—non raggionam' di lor. Republicans should be above such rubbish as that."
"'The first shall be last, and the last shall be first!'" said his father, looking up from the havoc of meat before him.