She had taken a line.

She loved everything that was a little flagrant, a little out of the common, and a little dubious.

To a lady with these tastes Tyson was a godsend; he more than satisfied her desire for magnificence and mystery.

For economical reasons Mrs.Wilcox's body was compelled to live with Mr.Wilcox in a cottage in Drayton Parva; but her soul dwelt continually in a side-street in Bayswater, in a region haunted by the shabby-refined, the shabby-smart, and the innocently risky.

Mrs.Wilcox, I maintain, was as innocent as the babe unborn.