He had also met there American ladies who were "too amusing"-- never, of course, American men, Mesopotamians of the financial or the racing type, and several of those gentlemen who had been, or were about to be, engaged in a transaction which might or again might not, "come off," and in conduct of an order which might, or again might not be spotted.

The line he knew, was always drawn at those in any category who were actually found out, for the value of these ladies and these gentlemen was not their claim to pity--nothing so sentimental--but their "smartness," clothes, jokes, racing tips, their "bridge parties," and their motors.
In sum, the house was one whose fundamental domesticity attracted and sheltered those who were too "smart" to keep their heads for long above the water.
His host, a grey, clean-shaven city man, with a long upper lip, was trying to understand a lady the audacity of whose speech came ringing down the table.

Shelton himself had given up the effort with his neighbours, and made love to his dinner, which, surviving the incoherence of the atmosphere, emerged as a work of art.

It was with surprise that he found Miss Casserol addressing him.
"I always say that the great thing is to be jolly.

If you can't find anything to make you laugh, pretend you do; it's so much 'smarter to be amusin'.