All these people amounted to something socially.

They all had substantial homes and substantial incomes, so that they were worthy of consideration.

The difference between Aileen and most of the women involved a difference between naturalism and illusion.

But this calls for some explanation.
To really know the state of the feminine mind at this time, one would have to go back to that period in the Middle Ages when the Church flourished and the industrious poet, half schooled in the facts of life, surrounded women with a mystical halo.

Since that day the maiden and the matron as well has been schooled to believe that she is of a finer clay than man, that she was born to uplift him, and that her favors are priceless.