Chapter 2

The Head of the House of Coombe was not a title to be found in
Burke or Debrett. It was a fine irony of the Head's own and having
been accepted by his acquaintances was not infrequently used by
them in their light moments in the same spirit. The peerage recorded
him as a Marquis and added several lesser attendant titles.

"When English society was respectable, even to stodginess at times,"
was his point of view, "to be born 'the Head of the House' was a
weighty and awe-inspiring thing. In fearful private denunciatory
interviews with one's parents and governors it was brought up against
one as a final argument against immoral conduct such as debt and
not going to church. As the Head of the House one was called upon
to be an Example. In the country one appeared in one's pew and
announced oneself a 'miserable sinner' in loud tones, one had to
invite the rector to dinner with regularity and 'the ladies' of
one's family gave tea and flannel petticoats and baby clothes to
cottagers. Men and women were known as 'ladies' and 'gentlemen'
in those halcyon days. One Represented things--Parties in
Parliament--Benevolent Societies, and British Hospitality in the
form of astounding long dinners at which one drank healths and
made speeches. In roseate youth one danced the schottische and the
polka and the round waltz which Lord Byron denounced as indecent.
To recall the vigour of his poem gives rise to a smile--when one
chances to sup at a cabaret."

He was considered very amusing when he analyzed his own mental
attitude towards his world in general.

"I was born somewhat too late and somewhat too early," he explained
in his light, rather cold and detached way. "I was born and educated
at the closing of one era and have to adjust myself to living in
another. I was as it were cradled among treasured relics of the
ethics of the Georges and Queen Charlotte, and Queen Victoria in
her bloom. _I_ was in my bloom in the days when 'ladies' were
reproved for wearing dresses cut too low at Drawing Rooms. Such
training gives curious interest to fashions in which bodices are
unconsidered trifles and Greek nymphs who dance with bare feet
and beautiful bare legs may be one's own relations. I trust I do
not seem even in the shadowiest way to comment unfavourably. I
merely look on at the rapidities of change with unalloyed interest.
As the Head of the House of Coombe I am not sure WHAT I am an
Example of--or to. Which is why I at times regard myself in that
capacity with a slightly ribald lightness."

The detachment of his question with regard to the newborn infant
of the airily irresponsible Feather was in entire harmony with his
attitude towards the singular incident of