Into these select parties Lady Clonbrony had never been admitted.

In return for her great entertainments she was invited to great entertainments, to large parties; but farther she could never penetrate.
At Lady St, James's, and with her set, Lady Clonbrony suffered a different kind of mortification from that which Lady Langdale and Mrs.
Dareville made her endure.

She was safe from the witty raillery, the sly innuendo, the insolent mimicry; but she was kept at a cold, impassable distance, by ceremony--'So far shalt thou go, and no farther' was expressed in every look, in every word, and in a thousand different ways.
By the most punctilious respect and nice regard to precedency, even by words of courtesy--'Your ladyship does me honour,' etc .-- Lady St.James contrived to mortify and to mark the difference between those with whom she was, and with whom she was not, upon terms of intimacy and equality.
Thus the ancient grandees of Spain drew a line of demarcation between themselves and the newly-created nobility.

Whenever or wherever they met, they treated the new nobles with the utmost respect, never addressed them but with all their titles, with low bows, and with all the appearance of being, with the most perfect consideration, anything but their equals; whilst towards one another the grandees laid aside their state, and omitting their titles, it was, 'Alcala-Medina-Sidonia-Infantado,' and a freedom and familiarity which marked equality.

Entrenched in etiquette in this manner, and mocked with marks of respect, it was impossible either to intrude or to complain of being excluded.
At supper at Lady St.James's, Lady Clonbrony's present was pronounced by some gentleman to be remarkably high flavoured.