Kieran Doherty Quote

Even in these cramped, almost intolerable conditions, there was still the awareness of rank that permeated English society as a whole and that made Gates and Somers unwilling to cede any preference to the other. Gentlemen, even those like Strachey and Henry Paine whose purses were empty, whose shoes were worn, and whose clothing was threadbare, hardly would have mixed with those they thought of as the lesser sort. At meals, Mr. and Mrs. Rolfe and the Reverend Mr. Bucke and Mistress Horton would have dined with Strachey and other gentry, at a safe remove from the scruffier passengers who had obtained passage only by pledging their lives and labors for the next seven years.