There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.

Some people carry a weight that has nothing to do with title, money or the family they were born into. It comes from what they can actually do, and from how they behave when behaving well costs them something. Rank handed down is easy to see and easy to imitate; the other kind shows up slowly, in how people speak about someone who is not in the room.

Consider whose judgement you defer to, and why. If the reason is position rather than conduct, that is worth knowing. The same test runs the other way, since your own standing is being built right now out of what you do when it would be cheaper not to.