The Duvidney ladies were, to his knowledge, of the order of the fragile minds which hold together by the cement of a common trepidation for the support of things established, and have it not in them to be able to recognize the unsanctioned.

Good women, unworldly of the world, they were perforce harder than the world, from being narrower and more timorous.
'But, Victor, you were sure they would refuse!' He answered: 'They may have gone back to Tunbridge Wells.

By the way, they have a society down there I want for Fredi.

Sure, do you say, my dear?
Perfectly sure.

But the accumulation of invitations and refusals in the end softens them, you will see.