The newcomer would import an element of caste and class which would freeze mother and daughter to the bones.

Crozier was the essence of democracy, which in its purest form is akin to the most aristocratic element and is easily affiliated with it.

He had no fear of Crozier.

Crozier would remain exactly the same; but would not Crozier be whisked away out of Askatoon to a new fate, reconciled to being a receiver of his wife's bounty.
"If his wife gets her arms round his neck, and if she wants to get them there, she will, and once there he'll go with her like a gentleman," said the Young Doctor sarcastically.

Admiring Crozier as he did, he also had underneath all his knowledge of life an unreasonable apprehension of man's weakness where a woman was concerned.