An invitation to dinner from the Provost of Winton and Mrs.Manson, to "Dr.and Mrs.Hooper, Miss Hooper and Lady Constance Bledlow," to meet an archbishop, had fairly taken Mrs.Hooper's breath away.

But she declaimed to Alice none the less in private on the innate snobbishness of people.
Nora, however, wished to understand.
"I can't imagine why you should read _The Times_," she said with emphasis, as Connie pushed her tray away, and looked for her cigarettes.
"What have you to do with politics ?" "Why, _The Times_ is all about people I know!" said Connie, opening amused eyes.

"Look there!" And she pointed to the newspaper lying open amid the general litter of her morning's post, and to a paragraph among the foreign telegrams describing the excitement in Rome over a change of Ministry.

"Fall of the Italian Cabinet.

The King sends for the Marchese Bardinelli." "And there's a letter from Elisa Bardinelli, telling me all about it!" She tossed some closely-written sheets to Nora, who took them up doubtfully.
"It is in Italian!" she said, as though she resented the fact.
"Well, of course! Did you think it would be in Russian?
You really ought to learn Italian, Nora.