She opened her eyes a little. ‘Do you? Since when? Since you became Lord Carlyon? My dear boy, if a trumpery little handle to your name is going to make you ashamed of your wife’s reputation as an author, I think it’s a great pity you ever succeeded to the title.’ ‘Oh, I know you don’t care a bit about it,’ he said, keeping his gaze on the juicy peach; ‘but other people appreciate it.’ ‘What other people?’ queried Delicia, laughing. ‘The droll little units that call themselves “society?” I daresay they do appreciate it—they have got nothing else to think or talk about but “he” and “she” and “we” and “they.” And yet poor old Mortlands, who was here this afternoon, forgot all about this same wonderful title many times, and kept on calling me “Miss Vaughan.” Then he apologised, and said in extenuation, that to add a “ladyship” to my name was “to gild refined gold and paint the lily.” That quotation has often been used before under similar circumstances, but he gave it quite a new flavour of gallantry.’ ‘The Mortlands family dates back to about the same period as ours,’ said Carlyon, musingly. ‘As ours? Say as yours, my dear lord!’ returned Delicia, gaily, ‘for I am sure I do not know where the Vaughans come from. I must go down to the Heralds’ College and see if I cannot persuade someone in authority there to pick me out an ancestor who did great deeds before the Carlyons ever existed! Ancestral glory is such a question with you now, Will, that I almost wish I were the daughter of a Chicago pork-packer.’ ‘Why?’ asked Carlyon, a trifle gloomily. ‘Why, because I could at any rate get up a past “Pilgrim Father” if necessary. A present-day reputation is evidently not sufficient for you.’ ‘I think the old days were best,’ he said curtly. ‘Yes? When the men kept the women within four walls, as cows are kept in byres, and gave them just the amount of food they thought they deserved, and beat them if they were rebellious? Well, perhaps those times were pleasant, but I am afraid I should never have appreciated them. I prefer to see things advancing—as they are—and I like a civilisation which includes the education of women as well as of men.’ ‘Things are advancing a great deal too quickly, in my opinion,’ said Carlyon, languidly, pouring out a glass of the choice claret beside him. ‘I should be inclined to vote for a little less rapid progress, in regard to women.’ ‘Yet only the other day you were saying what a shame it was that women could not win full academic honours like men; and you even said that they ought to be given titles, in reward for their services to Science, Art and Literature,’ said Delicia. ‘What has made you change your opinion?’ He did not look up at her, but absently played with the crumbs on the table-cloth. ‘Well, I am not sure that it is the correct thing for women to appear very prominently in public,’ he said.