She had survived him for many years.

With her elder and younger sister she lived now in the house of Timothy, her sixth and youngest brother, on the Bayswater Road.

Each of these ladies held fans in their hands, and each with some touch of colour, some emphatic feather or brooch, testified to the solemnity of the opportunity.
In the centre of the room, under the chandelier, as became a host, stood the head of the family, old Jolyon himself.

Eighty years of age, with his fine, white hair, his dome-like forehead, his little, dark grey eyes, and an immense white moustache, which drooped and spread below the level of his strong jaw, he had a patriarchal look, and in spite of lean cheeks and hollows at his temples, seemed master of perennial youth.
He held himself extremely upright, and his shrewd, steady eyes had lost none of their clear shining.

Thus he gave an impression of superiority to the doubts and dislikes of smaller men.