We have all studied the ingenious lady who calls herself Ouida. We have met such young patricians in Under Two Flags and Idalia. No age reproduces itself. No, the spirit of the world, mirroring itself in the minds of individuals, simpered, and that simper was Lady Fanny Flummery. But it did many things more portentous than simpering, when it reflected itself in Ouida.
Nobody cares to read or write about the dear duchess.
If a peer comes into a novel he comes in, not as a coroneted curiosity, but as a man, just as if he were a dentist, or a stockbroker. I scarce remember a lord in all the many works of Mr. Besant, nor do they people the romances of Mr. Black. Mrs. Oliphant has a Scotch peer, but he is less interesting and prominent than his family ghost. As for M. Paul Bourget, one really can be happy with him in the fearless old fashion. That young Republican, M. Bourget, sincerely loves a blason, a pedigree, diamonds, lace, silver dressing cases, silver baths, essences, pomatums, le grand luxe.