Mrs.Denton made no mystery of why she had invited them.

Why should all questions be left to the politicians and the journalists?
Why should not the people interested take a hand; meet and talk over these little matters with quiet voices and attentive ears, amid surroundings where the unwritten law would restrain ladies and gentlemen from addressing other ladies and gentlemen as blood-suckers or anarchists, as grinders of the faces of the poor or as oily-tongued rogues; arguments not really conducive to mutual understanding and the bridging over of differences.

The latest Russian dancer, the last new musical revue, the marvellous things that can happen at golf, the curious hands that one picks up at bridge, the eternal fox, the sacred bird! Excellent material for nine-tenths of our conversation.

But the remaining tenth?
Would it be such excruciatingly bad form for us to be intelligent, occasionally; say, on one or two Fridays during the season?
Mrs.Denton wrapped it up tactfully; but that was her daring suggestion.
It took them aback at first.

There were people who did this sort of thing.