They had not discovered simplicity of living.

Such rooms were museums, entailing endless labor to keep clean.

The dust-demon was the lord of the household.
There were a myriad devices for catching dust, and only a few devices for getting rid of it.
It was at this time that vanished my last doubt of the completeness of my love for him (a subconscious doubt, at most).

It was at the Philomath Club--a wonderful night of battle, wherein Ernest bearded the masters in their lair.

Now the Philomath Club was the most select on the Pacific Coast.