Page:Vivian Grey, Volume 1.djvu/60



England, personal distinction is the only passport to the society of the great. Whether this distinction arise from fortune, family, or talent, is immaterial; but certain it is, to enter into high society, a man must either have blood, a million, or a genius.

Neither the fortune nor the family of Mr. Grey entitled him to mix in any other society than that of, what is, in common parlance, termed, the middling classes; but from his distinguished literary abilities he had always found himself an honoured guest among the