The double pleasure of pulling down an opponent, and of raising oneself, is the charm of a politician’s life. — Anthony Trollope

No doubt there were other first cousins as badly off, or perhaps worse, as to whom the Duchess would care nothing whether they were rich or poor, — married or single; but then they were first cousins who had not had the advantage of interesting the Duchess.

“Isn‘t there some trouble about money?”

“They wouldn‘t be very rich, Duchess.”

“What a blessing for them! But then, perhaps, they‘d be very poor.”

“They would be rather poor.”

“Which is not a blessing.”

The natural man will probably be manly. The affected man cannot be so.