But still he did not fly from the vision that came to him when he found himself alone after spending the evenings in brilliant company--a vision of the lovely woman who was waiting for him! What had she said?
Her soul--her soul would be lost forevermore?
Well, that showed that she was a woman, at any rate, and he loved her all the better for her womanliness.

He knew very well that if God is a Figure of Speech with men, the losing of a soul is a figure of speech with women.

The expression means only that they have lost the chance of drinking a number of cups of tea in drawing rooms whose doors are now shut to them.

That was what Ella meant, no doubt.

If she were openly to set at defiance certain of those laws by the aid of which society was kept together with a moderate degree of consistency, she would be treated as an outlaw.
After all, such a fate was not without its bright side.