Fires were not lighted because a day was chilly and gloomy.
She had once asked for one in her bedroom and her mother-in-law had reproved her for indecent extravagance in a manner which took her breath away.
"I suppose in America you have your house at furnace heat in July," she said.

"Mere wastefulness and self-indulgence! That is why Americans are old women at twenty.

They are shrivelled and withered by the unhealthy lives they lead.

Stuffing themselves with sweets and hot bread and never breathing the fresh air." Rosalie could not at the moment recall any withered and shrivelled old women of twenty, but she blushed and stammered as usual.
"It is never cold enough for fires in July," she answered, "but we--we never think fires extravagant when we are not comfortable without them." "Coal must be cheaper than it is in England," said her ladyship.

"When you have a daughter, I hope you do not expect to bring her up as girls are brought up in New York." This was the first time Rosalie had heard of her daughter, and she was not ready enough to reply.