ed, cajoled, and revered
by one Prime Minister after another. Now the late Marquis had been,
as was the custom with the Fichy Fidgetts, a man of pleasure. If the
truth may be spoken openly, it should be admitted that he had been
a man of sin. The duty of keeping together the family property he
had performed with a perfect zeal. It had always been acknowledged
on behalf of the existing Marquis, that in whatever manner he might
spend his money, however base might be the gullies into which his
wealth descended, he never spent more than he had to spend. Perhaps
there was but little praise in this, as he could hardly have
got beyond his enormous income unless he had thrown it away on
race-courses and roulette tables. But it had long been remarked of
the Mount Fidgett marquises that they were too wise to gamble. The
family had not been an honour to the country, but had nevertheless
been honoured by the country. The man who had just died had perhaps
been as selfish and as sensual a brute as had ever disgraced
humanity;--but nevertheless he had been a Knight of the Garter. He
had been possessed of considerable parliamentary interest, and the
Prime Minister of the day had not dared not to make him a Knight of
the Garter. All the Marquises of Mount Fidgett had for many years
past been Knights of the Garter. On the last occasion a good deal had
been said about it. A feeling had even then begun to prevail that
the highest personal honour in the gift of the Crown should not be
bestowed upon a man whose whole life was a disgrace, and who did
indeed seem to deserve every punishment which human or divine wrath
could inflict. He had a large family, but they were all illegitimate.
Wives generally he liked, but of his own wife he very soon broke
the heart. Of all the companies with which he consorted he was the
admitted king, but his subjects could do no man any honour. The
Castle of Fichy Fellows was visited by the world at large, but no
man or woman with a character to lose went into any house really
inhabited by the Marquis. And yet he had become a Knight of the
Garter, and was therefore, presumably, one of those noble Englishmen
to whom the majesty of the day was willing to confide the honour,
and glory, and safety of the Crown. There were many who disliked
this. That a base reprobate should become a Marquis and a peer of
Parliament was in accordance with the constitution of the country.
Marquises and peers are not as a rule reprobate