These gentlemen and their households were unostentatious people; they were educated and refined; they troubled themselves but little about the two other orders of nobility, but moved serenely in their wide orbit, confident in their own strength and well aware of the potency of their influence.

They had no troublesome appearances to keep up, no rivalries which they cared to distress themselves about, no jealousies to fret over.

They could afford to mind their own affairs and leave other combinations to do the same or do otherwise, just as they chose.

They were people who were beyond reproach, and that was sufficient.
Senator Dilworthy never came into collision with any of these factions.
He labored for them all and with them all.

He said that all men were brethren and all were entitled to the honest unselfish help and countenance of a Christian laborer in the public vineyard.
Laura concluded, after reflection, to let circumstances determine the course it might be best for her to pursue as regarded the several aristocracies.
Now it might occur to the reader that perhaps Laura had been somewhat rudely suggestive in her remarks to Mrs.Oreille when the subject of corals was under discussion, but it did not occur to Laura herself.
She was not a person of exaggerated refinement; indeed, the society and the influences that had formed her character had not been of a nature calculated to make her so; she thought that "give and take was fair play," and that to parry an offensive thrust with a sarcasm was a neat and legitimate thing to do.