It really is what our slangy friend calls 'rot,' and very dry rot.

Have you read the thing ?" Mrs.Borisoff looked at the title, and answered with a headshake.
"Imagine! An awful apparatus of mystery; blood-curdling hints about the hero, whose prospects in life are supposed to be utterly blighted.

And all because--what do you think?
Because his father and mother forgot the marriage ceremony." The other was amused, and at the same time surprised.

It was the first time that Miss Derwent, in their talk, had allowed herself a remark suggestive of what is called "emancipation." She would talk with freedom of almost any subject save that specifically forbidden to English girls.

Helen Borisoff, whose finger showed a wedding ring, had respected this reticence, but it delighted her to see a new side of her friend's attractive personality.
"I suppose in certain circles"-- she began.
"Oh yes! Shopkeepers and clerks and so on.