But I never had anything to do with her, never called on her by myself, never so much as talked to her alone.

I went to her dinners, of course.

All widowers and bachelors of our district went to her dinners.
But her dinners were the pattern of propriety in every way.

Your own grandmother's famous dinners were not more decorous.

Except for being a guest, with others, at her dinners, I never was at her villa.