Whatever happened he would still be Lord Ashbridge, with his grey top-hat and his large carnation and his enviable position.
"You will have heard what Sir James's opinion is about your poor mother," he said.

"It was in consequence of what he recommended when he talked over the future with me that I came to see you." Michael guessed very well what this recommendation was, but with a certain stubbornness and sense of what was due to himself, he let his father proceed with the not very welcome task of telling him.
"In fact, Michael," he said, "I have a favour to ask of you." The fact of his being Lord Ashbridge, and the fact of Michael being his unsatisfactory son, stiffened him, and he had to qualify the favour.
"Perhaps I should not say I am about to ask you a favour," he corrected himself, "but rather to point out to you what is your obvious duty." Suddenly it struck Michael that his father was not thinking about Lady Ashbridge at all, nor about him, but in the main about himself.

All had to be done from the dominant standpoint; he owed it to himself to alleviate the conditions under which his wife must live; he owed it to himself that his son should do his part as a Comber.

There was no longer any possible doubt as to what this favour, or this direction of duty, must be, but still Michael chose that his father should state it.

He pushed a chair forward for him.
"Won't you sit down ?" he said.
"Thank you, I would rather stand.