McTaggart roared, and the Bishop's charity was not proof against the infection of her mirth.
"Really, it is remarkable, the modern mania for a title." He took off his glasses and wiped them, still faintly shaken with laughter.
McTaggart inwardly congratulated himself (and not for the first time) on his determination to drop his foreign honours on landing in England.
("A fine ass I should look now, posing as an Italian Marquis among friends who have known me since college days as Peter McTaggart"--he smiled at the thought.)
His principal trouble had been with Mario, but the latter's ignorance of the English tongue and the knowledge that if he talked it would mean his dismissal had made him obedient, albeit sulkily.
The fear of a slip had dissuaded McTaggart himself from much talk with Jill on his Sienese inheritance. She knew he had some property there, but, beyond this, very little. Bethune was the only man wholly in the secret. Luckily for McTaggart, it had escaped the papers, filled at that period with a royal marriage. The Scotch side of his character, cautious and reserved, stood him in good stead, and besides this he had a horror of snobism, somewhat rare in these days.
"It seems a pity," he said now, "that honours are so frequent--or rather, I should say, so easily earned. So many splendid men in the past have won them by deeds of heroism, for fine administration and solid work done in the interests of the Empire. Men _worthy_ I mean, without any question of £_s.d_.
"Of course one knows lots of people--dear people too--who deserve them, every inch--like the Cheltenhams... But when a title's frankly bought, it seems to take away from the dignity of those others and the men to come. There should be a special kind of distinction to mean money--We talk of 'Law Lords'--for instance--why not Finance Lords? And Lords of Silence"--he smiled--"like Fleming. Not the 'Golden Fleece' but the 'Golden Tongue'!"
Lady Leason nodded her head approvingly, engrossed just then with the final process of the coffee.
"By the way," he said, "talking of money, how's that company of yours? I looked up Schliff's record as far as I could, and--as I wrote you--it was hardly reassuring, though I didn't care to say too much in my letter."