None of them understand that now.
Dukes are as common as dogs in the streets, and a marquis thinks no
more of himself than a market-gardener. I'm very sorry the old duke
should go. The nephew may be very good at figures, but he isn't fit
to fill his uncle's shoes. As for Lady Glencora, no doubt as things
go now she's very popular, but she's more like a dairy-maid than a
duchess to my way of thinking."
There was not a club in London, and hardly a drawing-room in which
something was not said that day in consequence of the two bulletins
which had appeared as to the condition of the old Duke;--and in no
club and in no drawing-room was a verdict given against the dying
man. It was acknowledged everywhere that he had played his part in a
noble and even in a princely manner, that he had used with a becoming
grace the rich things that had been given him, and that he had
deserved well of his country. And yet, perhaps, no man who had lived
during the same period, or any portion of the period, had done less,
or had devoted himself more entirely to the consumption of good
things without the slightest idea of producing anything in return!
But he had looked like a duke, and known how to set a high price on
his own presence.
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