But I don't want to try it on James if he's anything like what he was as a curate." "He is not much altered," said Hester.
"He is the kind of man that would not alter much," said Dick.

"I expect God Almighty likes him as he is." Mr.and Mrs.Gresley, meanwhile, were receiving Mrs.Pratt and the two Misses Pratt in the drawing-room.

Selina and Ada Pratt were fine, handsome young women, with long upper lips, who wore their smart sailor hats tilted backwards to show their bushy fringes, and whose muff-chains, with swinging pendent hearts, silk blouses and sequin belts and brown boots represented to Mrs.Gresley the highest pinnacle of the world of fashion.
Selina was the most popular, being liable to shrieks of laughter at the smallest witticisms, and always ready for that species of amusement termed "bally-ragging" or "hay-making." But Ada was the most admired.
She belonged to that type which in hotel society and country towns is always termed "queenly." She "kept the men at a distance." She "never allowed them to take liberties," etc., etc.

She held her chin up and her elbows out, and was considered by the section of Middleshire society in which she shone to be very distinguished.

Mrs.Pratt was often told that her daughter looked like a duchess; and this facsimile of the aristocracy, or rather of the most distressing traits of its latest recruits, had a manner of lolling with crossed legs in the parental carriage and pair which was greatly admired.