To secure Norman Wentworth would be "almost as good as a title." An intimacy was sedulously cultivated with "dear Mrs.Wentworth," and Norman, the "dear boy," was often brought to the house.
Perversely, he and Alice did not take to each other in the way Mrs.
Yorke had hoped.

They simply became the best of friends, and Mrs.Yorke had the mortification of seeing a tall and statuesque schoolmate of Alice's capture Norman, while Alice appeared totally indifferent to him.
What made it harder to bear was that Mrs.Caldwell, Louise Caldwell's mother, a widow with barely enough to live respectably on, was quietly walking off with the prize which Mrs.Yorke and a number of other mothers were striving to secure, and made no more of it than if it had been her right.

It all came of her family connections.

That was the way with those old families.

They were so selfishly exclusive and so proud.
They held themselves superior to every one else and appeared to despise wealth.