“I am sure you do it a great honor,” he said, fearing he had been uncivil.
“I have often thought about it,” she went on after a moment. “I have often thought about your being a hereditary legislator. A hereditary legislator ought to know a great many things.”
“Not if he doesn’t legislate.”
“But you do legislate; it’s absurd your saying you don’t. You are very much looked up to here—I am assured of that.”
“I don’t know that I ever noticed it.”
“It is because you are used to it, then. You ought to fill the place.”
“How do you mean to fill it?” asked Lord Lambeth.
“You ought to be very clever and brilliant, and to know almost everything.”
Lord Lambeth looked at her a moment. “Shall I tell you something?” he asked. “A young man in my position, as you call it—”
“I didn’t invent the term,” interposed Bessie Alden. “I have seen it in a great many books.”