Intellectually, she was comparatively mature; in other respects, as inexperienced and impressionable as any convent girl.
"I fear luncheon is impossible!" said Lady Lucy's voice.
Diana looked up and saw her descending the stairs.
"Such a pity! Oliver will be so disappointed." She paused beside her guest--an attractive and distinguished figure.

On her white hair she wore a lace cap which was tied very precisely under her delicate chin.

Her dress, of black satin, was made in a full plain fashion of her own; she had long since ceased to allow her dressmaker any voice in it; and her still beautiful hands flashed with diamonds, not however in any vulgar profusion.

Lady Lucy's mother had been of a Quaker family, and though Quakerism in her had been deeply alloyed with other metals, the moral and intellectual self-dependence of Quakerism, its fastidious reserves and discrimination were very strong in her.
Discrimination indeed was the note of her being.

For every Christian, some Christian precepts are obsolete.