Braided Morning Coat, beginning to feel very low and miserable, pleaded guilty to this also.
"All this, to my mind, Mr. Shelmerdine, constitutes an insuperable barrier." Diction beautifully clear and mellow. How can it be otherwise with the Bean and Kendall tradition!
"Let me make myself quite understood, Mr. Shelmerdine. It hardly seems right, to my mind, that an old theatrical family should form an alliance with a comparatively recent peerage. I believe, Mr. Shelmerdine, 'comparatively recent' is not in excess of the facts. Jane, my parlor maid, has looked it up in Debrett, as my eyesight is not of the best. Created 1904, I believe, to the best of my recollection, during Mr. Vandeleur's second administration."
The answer was in the affirmative.
"Your father is a man of great distinction, I understand, a Proconsul who has rendered invaluable service to the Empire. All that I have heard about him redounds to his honor, but I cannot think he would give his sanction to this proposed alliance. I may say that I should not, if I were he."
Braided Morning Coat was rather distressed.
"The fact is, Mr. Shelmerdine, I am strongly opposed to this modern craze for contracting matrimonial alliances between the theatrical profession and the peerage. To my mind, they are two entirely alien institu-
