She only caught her breath each time with a little gasp.
Mrs.Maxwell addressed herself almost wholly to Mrs.Babcock concerning her daughter, her daughter's husband, and the people of Elliot.

Mrs.Babcock constantly bore down upon her, and swerved her aside with her own topics.

Indeed, all the conversation lay between these two.

There was a curious similarity between them.

They belonged apparently to some one subdivision of human nature, being as birds of the same feather, and seemed to instinctively recognize this fact.
They were at once attracted, and regarded each other with a kind of tentative cordiality, which might later become antagonism, for they were on a level for either friendship or enmity.
Mrs.Maxwell made a long call, as she was accustomed to do.