@Dahlialith these very rich people are not friends of those Supreme Court Justices; they are patrons. We have forgotten enough of the aristocratic social order that we don't immediately recognize it, but that is what they are.

"I have been so fortunate as to be distinguished by the patronage of the Right Honourable Lady Catherine de Bourgh whose bounty and beneficence has preferred me to the valuable rectory of this parish…"