I slipped out into the fresh air, and fumigated myself, after the company I had kept, with a cigar.

No, no! it's useless to excuse these things (I could quote dozens of other instances that have come under my own observation) by saying that they are trifles.

When trifles make themselves habits of yours or of mine, they become a part of your character or mine.

We have an inveterately false and vicious system of society in England.

If you want to trace one of the causes, look back to the little organized insincerities of English life." Of course you understand, Cecilia, that this was not all said at one burst, as I have written it here.