-it's a
theory so convenient to their security that they would be exceptionally
good people if they did not adopt it; but, from your account, they are
not so much exceptionally as just typically good people. What you call
their sense of duty, Stanley, is really their sense of self-preservation
coupled with their sense of superiority."

"H'm!" said Stanley; "I don't know that I quite follow you."

"I always hate an odor of sanctity. I'd prefer them to say frankly:
'This is my property, and you'll jolly well do what I tell you, on it.'"

"But, my dear chap, after all, they really ARE superior."

"That," said Felix, "I emphatically question. Put your Mallorings to
earn their living on fifteen to eighteen shillings a week, and where
would they be? The Mallorings have certain virtues, no doubt, natural to
their fortunate environment, but of the primitive virtues of
patience, hardihood, perpetual, almost unconscious self-sacrifice, and
cheerfulness in the face of a hard fate, they are no more the equals of
the people they pretend to be superior to than I am your equal as a man
of business."

"Hang it!" was Stanley's answer, "what a d--d old heretic you are!"

Felix frowned. "Am I? Be honest! Take the life of a Malloring and take
it at its best; see how it stands comparison in the ordinary virtues
with those of an averagely good specimen of a farm-laborer. Your
Malloring is called with a cup of tea, at, say, seven o'clock, out of a
nice, clean, warm bed; he gets into a bath that has been got ready for
him; into clothes and boots that have been brushed for him; and goes
down to a room where there's a fire burning already if it's a cold day,
writes a few letters, perhaps, before eating a breakfast of exactly what
he likes, nicely prepared for him, and reading the newspaper that best
comforts his soul; when he has eaten and read, he lights his cigar
or his pipe and attends to his digestion in the most sanitary and
comfortable fashion; then in his study he sits down to steady direction
of other people, either by interview or by writing letters, or what
not. In this way, between directing people and eating what he likes,
he passes the whole day, except that for two or three hours, sometimes
indeed seven or eight hours, he attends to his physique by riding,
motoring, playing a game, or indulging in a sport that he has chosen for
himself. And, at the end of all that, he probably has another bath that
has been made ready for him