Indeed, I always felt that she was very little use.

I doubt whether she has the slightest influence with respectable people." It was just after breakfast, and the day promised to be the hottest of the year.

The vicar, heavy-laden man, had sat down in his study to worry over parish accounts.

When the door opened to admit his wife, he quivered with annoyance.

Mrs.Lashmar had a genius for the malapropos.
During breakfast, when her talk would have mattered little, she had kept silence; now that her husband particularly wished to be alone with his anxieties, she entered with an air forboding long discourse.
"Twenty-three pounds, four shillings and sixpence," muttered the vicar, as he passed a handkerchief over his moist forehead.