Otherwise--Oh, what right have I to be calling people 'stupid' because they're not exactly my kind?
On the big dinner-table they had enormous icing models of the Sheridan Building--" "Oh, no!" Mrs.Vertrees cried.

"Surely not!" "Yes, and two other things of that kind--I don't know what.

But, after all, I wondered if they were so bad.

If I'd been at a dinner at a palace in Italy, and a relief or inscription on one of the old silver pieces had referred to some great deed or achievement of the family, I shouldn't have felt superior; I'd have thought it picturesque and stately--I'd have been impressed.

And what's the real difference?
The icing is temporary, and that's much more modest, isn't it?
And why is it vulgar to feel important more on account of something you've done yourself than because of something one of your ancestors did?
Besides, if we go back a few generations, we've all got such hundreds of ancestors it seems idiotic to go picking out one or two to be proud of ourselves about.