She did not think of his age.

But she was vividly thinking that she was young.

Young, married, loveless, cramped in her energies, publicly dishonoured--a Lady Doubtful, courting one friend whom she liked among women, one friend whom she respected among men; that was the sketch of her.
That was in truth the outline, as much as Aminta dared sketch of herself without dragging her down lower than her trained instinct would bear to look.

Our civilization shuns nature; and most shuns it in the most artificially civilized, to suit the market.

They, however, are always close to their mother nature, beneath their second nature's mask of custom; and Aminta's unconscious concluding touch to the sketch: 'My husband might have helped me to a footing in Society,' would complete it as a coloured picture, if writ in tones.
She said it, and for the footing in Society she had lost her taste.
Mrs.Lawrence brought the final word from high quarters: that the application must be deferred until Lord Ormont returned to town.