May the day never come, ladies and gentlemen, when--ha--the ranks of our nobility suffer an intrusion of the unworthy--hum.

And I would extend this remark to the order below that of peers, to the hereditary dignity which often rewards--ha--distinguished merit.

May those simple titles, so pleasant--hum--to our ears, whether applied, I say, to man or woman--ha--hum--ha--never be degraded by ignoble bearers, by the low born--ha--by the tainted in repute--ha--in short by any of those unfit, whether man or woman--ha--hum--who, like vile weeds, are thrown up to the surface by the, shall I say, deluge of democracy." Every hearer saw the application of this, and Lady Ogram had not long to wait before she read it in print.

Her temper that day was not mild.
She had occasion to controvert a friend, a Conservative lady, on some little point of fact in an innocent gossip, and that lady never again turned her steps to Rivenoak.
But worse was to come.

Rarely had Lady Ogram any trouble with her domestics; she chose them very carefully, and kept them for a long time; they feared her, but respected her power of ruling, the rarest gift in women of whatever rank.