“All women take the rank of their fathers or their husbands, whichever is the higher; children take the rank of their parents until their sixteenth year. Is that clear?”
“Quite clear,” I replied, “except in one particular.”
“What is that?”
“I take it that some, at any rate, pass from one class to another. By what means, for example, does a person who starts life, let us say in the Fourth Class, obtain admission to the Third?”
“We must take some particular category.”
“A business man, a small manufacturer who is highly successful, perhaps makes some valuable discovery which enriches him. How does he obtain admission to the Third Class?”
“He must have an income of at least £5000 a year, and he must have performed some service to the State,” answered Prigge promptly.
“And a Civil servant?”
“If he is promoted to the first grade he also is admitted to the Third Class, but this does not frequently happen.”