"Isabel's mother (you may not be aware of it) was the daughter of an English clergyman--" "And Isabel's father was a chemist in a country town," added Lady Lydiard.
"Isabel's father," rejoined Miss Pink, "was attached in a most responsible capacity to the useful and honorable profession of Medicine.
Isabel is, in the strictest sense of the word, a young gentlewoman.

If you contradict that for a single instant, Lady Lydiard, you will oblige me to leave the room." Those last words produced a result which Miss Pink had not anticipated--they roused Lady Lydiard to assert herself.

As usual in such cases, she rose superior to her own eccentricity.

Confronting Miss Pink, she now spoke and looked with the gracious courtesy and the unpresuming self-confidence of the order to which she belonged.
"For Isabel's own sake, and for the quieting of my conscience," she answered, "I will say one word more, Miss Pink, before I relieve you of my presence.

Considering my age and my opportunities, I may claim to know quite as much as you do of the laws and customs which regulate society in our time.