He knew that this man was not a gentleman, but his own position was so assured that he could afford to associate with any one.

Here, again, men are safer.

A woman is too delicate a social flower to be independent of environments.

She takes the tone of her surroundings.

It is, one notices, only the ladies who protest that the barmaid married in haste and repented of at leisure can raise herself to her husband's level.