According to Isabel, if Miss Molyneux should ever learn
what had passed between Miss Archer and Lord Warburton she would
probably be shocked at such a girl's failure to rise; or no, rather
(this was our heroine's last position) she would impute to the young
American but a due consciousness of inequality.
Whatever Isabel might have made of her opportunities, at all events,
Henrietta Stackpole was by no means disposed to neglect those in which
she now found herself immersed. "Do you know you're the first lord
I've ever seen?" she said very promptly to her neighbour. "I suppose
you think I'm awfully benighted."
"You've escaped seeing some very ugly men," Lord Warburton answered,
looking a trifle absently about the table.
"Are they very ugly? They try to make us believe in America that
they're all handsome and magnificent and that they wear wonderful
robes and crowns."
"Ah, the robes and crowns are gone out of fashion," said Lord
Warburton, "like your tomahawks and revolvers."
"I'm sorry for that; I think an aristocracy ought to be splendid,"
Henrietta declared. "If it's not that, what is it?"
"Oh, you know, it isn't much, at the best," her neighbour allowed.
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