The Clerk and the Duchess.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLI, Issue 21, 18 November 1908, Page 56

The Clerk and the Duchess.

If the people who use “lady" rather than “woman” knew the proper meaning of the word, we could understand it, but they do so out of sheer snobbishness, as did a parish clerk of whom I have heard (remarks the Rev. E. J. Hardy, M. A.). A curate, when churching a duchess, calles! her, in the words of the Prayer Book, “this woman, Thy servant.” The clerk, shocked at such a liberty, looked reprovingly at the clergyman, and responded, “who putteth her ladyship's trust iu Thee.” Everyone now is called

a gentleman. but the words tell ns oa the face of it to whom alone it ought to be applied—to those who are gentle in thought, word, and deed. Unfortunately, clothes, money, and even idleness are what are too commonly considered as constituting a gentleman. ' A friend of mine told me that the other day, coming over from Ireland, be heard two men in the steamer talking of a third. “Who or what is he?’’ one of them asked. “I don’t know,” -was the reply, “but he is a gentleman; he always wears a tall hat." This note was found on the margin of the register-book of a certain parish: “A gentleman, but with less than £3OO a year.”