Socially, the step from Thurston Square to Prior Street could not be defined as a going down; but, intellectually, it was a decline, and morally (to those who knew Fanny Eliott and to Fanny Eliott who _knew_) it was, by comparison, a plunge into the abyss.

Fanny Eliott was the fine flower of Thurston Square.

She had satisfied even the fastidiousness of Anne.
She owned that Mr.Majendie had satisfied it too.

It was not that quality in Anne that made her choice so--well, so incomprehensible.
It was Dr.Gardner's word.

Dr.Gardner was the President of the Scale Literary and Philosophic Society, and in any discussion of the incomprehensible his word had weight.