“Certainly.—One is not always thinking of lovers, you know,” added Lady Catherine.
“Not always,” replied Miss Broadhurst. “Well, lovers out of the question on all sides, what would your ladyship buy with the thousands upon thousands?”
“Oh, every thing, if I were you,” said Lady Anne.
“Rank, to begin with,” said Lady Catherine.
“Still my old objection—bought rank is but a shabby thing.”
“But there is so little difference made between bought and hereditary rank in these days,” said Lady Catherine.
“I see a great deal still,” said Miss Broadhurst; “so much, that I would never buy a title.”
“A title, without birth, to be sure,” said Lady Anne, “would not be so well worth buying; and as birth certainly is not to be bought—”
“And even birth, were it to be bought, I would not buy,” said Miss Broadhurst, “unless I could be sure to have it with all the politeness, all the noble sentiments, all the magnanimity, in short, all that should grace and dignify high birth.”
“Admirable!” said Lord Colambre. Grace Nugent smiled.