Lady Morley, had her temperament permitted, might have been as frisky or as risky as she pleased, without attracting unkind attention, much less censure.

But, unless she combined the virtue of an angel with the manners of a district visitor, and contrived to walk circumspectly across the quicksands that separated her from "good society," a daughter of Mrs.Wilcox was condemned already.
Mrs.Nevill Tyson had never walked circumspectly in her life.

And Fate, that follows on the footsteps of the fool, was waiting, if not to catch Mrs.Nevill Tyson tripping, at any rate to prove that she must trip.
At first Fate merely willed that Sir Peter should take a journey up to town.

Sir Peter's serviceable tweed suit, that had lasted him a good five years, was beginning to go at the corners.

We know Stanistreet's opinion of Sir Peter's taste in dress; it was only a coarser expression of the views held by his wife.