"Why?"
"He likes to do it.... I've another pal of sorts who chucked the Guards to become a milliner. He always did like to crochet and trim hats. Why not?—if he likes it!"
"It is not," said Jessie Vining, "my idea of a British peer."
"But for Heaven's sake, consider the peer! Now and then they have an idea of what they'd like to do. Why not let them do it and be happy?"
"Then they ought not to have been born to the peerage," she said firmly.
"Many of them wouldn't have been had anybody consulted them."
"You?"
"It's brought me nothing but debt, ridicule, abuse, and summonses."
"You couldn't resign, could you?" she said, smiling.
"I am resigned. Oh, well, I'd rather be what I am than anything else, I fancy.... If the Topeka Museum trustees purchase that Gainsborough I'll be out of debt fast enough."