I would sooner live in the monkey-house at the Zoological than stay with either Lucy or Maud.' 'That's rank envy,' retorted her father 'You can't forgive them for having done so much better than you.' 'I can't forgive them for having married snobs.

When I marry I shall marry a gentleman.' 'When!' echoed the parent, with a sneering laugh.

'Hadn't you better say "if"'?
At this period Georgina's waning good looks were in some measure counterbalanced by the cumulative effects of half a dozen seasons in good society, which had given style to her person, ease to her manners, and sharpness to her tongue.

Nobody in society said sharper or more unpleasant things than Miss Lorimer, and by virtue of this gift she got invited about a great deal more than she might have done had she been distinguished for sweetness of speech and manner.

Georgie Lorimer's presence at a dinner table gave just that pungent flavour which is like the faint suspicion of garlic in a fricassee or of tarragon in a salad.
Now in this very season, when Colonel Lorimer was inclined to speak of his daughter, as Sainte Beuve wrote of Musset, as a young woman with a very brilliant past, a lucky turn of events gave Georgina a fresh start in life, which may be called a new departure.