'And in just the way that those learnt the signs of nature, I have learnt the language of her illegitimate sister--artificiality; and the fibbing of eyes, the contempt of nose-tips, the indignation of back hair, the laughter of clothes, the cynicism of footsteps, and the various emotions lying in walking-stick twirls, hat-liftings, the elevation of parasols, the carriage of umbrellas, become as A B C to me.
'Just look at that daughter's sister class of mamma in the carriage across there,' she continued to Elfride, pointing with merely a turn of her eye.

'The absorbing self-consciousness of her position that is shown by her countenance is most humiliating to a lover of one's country.

You would hardly believe, would you, that members of a Fashionable World, whose professed zero is far above the highest degree of the humble, could be so ignorant of the elementary instincts of reticence.' 'How ?' 'Why, to bear on their faces, as plainly as on a phylactery, the inscription, "Do, pray, look at the coronet on my panels."' 'Really, Charlotte,' said the vicar, 'you see as much in faces as Mr.
Puff saw in Lord Burleigh's nod.' Elfride could not but admire the beauty of her fellow countrywomen, especially since herself and her own few acquaintances had always been slightly sunburnt or marked on the back of the hands by a bramble-scratch at this time of the year.
'And what lovely flowers and leaves they wear in their bonnets!' she exclaimed.
'Oh yes,' returned Mrs.Swancourt.

'Some of them are even more striking in colour than any real ones.

Look at that beautiful rose worn by the lady inside the rails.