Secretly, Edith has ambitions.

She has gone to the Lord Mayor's dinners and to the Royal Antiquarians and to Sir John Rodney's and a lot of other functions on the outer rim, but she's never been able to break through the crust and taste the real sweets of London society.

My dear Roxbury, the Odell-Carneys entertain the nobility without compunction, and they've been known to hobnob with royalty.

Mrs.Odell-Carney was a Lady Somebody-or-other before she married the second time.

She's terribly smart, Roxbury." "How, in the name of heaven, do they happen to be hobnobbing, as you call it, with the Rodneys, may I ask ?" "Well, it seems that Odell-Carney is promoting a new South African mining venture.