"You mean to tell me that they are quite as good as dowager-countesses.

I grant it.

My aristocratic spirit is broken, Mrs.Lee.I will even ask them to dinner if you bid me, and if you will come to meet them.

But the last time I asked a member of Congress to dine, he sent me back a note in pencil on my own envelope that he would bring two of his friends with him, very respectable constituents from Yahoo city, or some such place; nature's noblemen, he said." "You should have welcomed them." "I did.

I wanted to see two of nature's noblemen, and I knew they would probably be pleasanter company than their representative.