"We know quite as well as she did. Society is just as strong and just as
exclusive as it ever was. But it is clever enough now to hide the fact
from outsiders."

"I am afraid we must agree that standards have been much relaxed," said
Lady Lucy.

"Not at all--not at all!" cried Lady Niton. "There were black sheep
then; and there are black sheep now."

Lady Lucy held her own.

"I am sure that people take less care in their invitations," she said,
with soft obstinacy. "I have often heard my mother speak of society in
her young days,--how the dear Queen's example purified it--and how much
less people bowed down to money then than now."

"Ah, that was before the Americans and the Jews," said Sir James Chide.

"People forget their responsibility," said Lady Lucy, turning to Diana,
and speaking so as not to be heard by the whole table. "In old days it
was birth; but now--now when we are all democratic--it should be
_character_.--Don't you agree with me?"

"Other people's character?" asked Diana.

"Oh, we mustn't be unkind, of course. But when a thing is notorious.
Take this young Brenner. His father's frauds ruined hundreds of poor
people. How can I receive him here, as if nothing had happened? It ought