Their power of
propulsion to the zenith is inherent in themselves. If they mingle,
in time, with the aristocratic noblesse of Europe, they may infuse
a certain picturesque element." Hardin realizes that some of the
children of these millionnaires of a day will play at school with
young princes, their girls will marry titles, and adorn their smallest
belongings with excrescent coronets and coats of arms, won in the
queer lottery of marriage.
"It is well," the cold lawyer muses. "After all, many of the
aristocracy of Europe are the descendants of expert horse-thieves,
hired bravos, knights who delighted to roast the merchant for his
fat money-bags, or spit the howling peasant on their spears. Many
soft-handed European dames feel the fiery blood burning in their
ardent bosoms. In some cases, a reminder of the beauty whose easy
complaisance caught a monarch's smile and earned an infamous title.
Rapine, murder, lust, oppression, high-handed bullying, servile
slavishness in every vile abandonment, have bred up delicate,
dreamy aristocrats. Their ancestors, by the two strains, were either
red-handed marauders, or easy Delilahs."
The God-given title to batten in luxury, is one which depends now
on the possession of golden wealth.
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