Am I a snob because I feel myself to be graced by his notice?
Surely not.

And if his acquaintance goes further and he asks me to dinner, am I not entitled so far to think well of myself because I have been found worthy of his society?
They who have raised themselves in the world, and they, too, whose position has enabled them to receive all that estimation can give, all that society can furnish, all that intercourse with the great can give, are more likely to be pleasant companions than they who have been less fortunate.

That picture of two companion dukes in Pall Mall is too gorgeous for human eye to endure.

A man would be scorched to cinders by so much light, as he would be crushed by a sack of sovereigns even though he might be allowed to have them if he could carry them away.

But there can be no doubt that a peer taken at random as a companion would be preferable to a clerk from a counting-house,--taken at random.