"Mrs. Touchett might do a great deal of good, but she never pleased. This way of her own, of which she was so fond, was not intrinsically offensive--it was just unmistakably distinguished from the way of others. The edges of her conduct were so very clear-cut that for susceptible persons it sometimes had a knife-like effect. That hard fineness came out in her deportment during the first hours of her return from America, under circumstances in which it might have seemed that her first act would have been to exchange greetings with her husband and son. Mrs. Touchett, for reasons which she deemed excellent, always retired on such occasions into impenetrable seclusion, postponing the more sentimental ceremony until she had repaired the disorder of dress with a completeness which had the less reason to be of high importance as neither beauty nor vanity were concerned in it. She was a plain-faced old woman, without graces and without any great elegance, but with an extreme respect for her own motives." (31)
James, Henry. The Portrait of a Lady. Hertfordshire, UK: Wordsworth Classics, 1999 [1881].
A funny example of clothing practice, a web of propriety spun by James.
James, Henry. The Portrait of a Lady. Hertfordshire, UK: Wordsworth Classics, 1999 [1881].
A funny example of clothing practice, a web of propriety spun by James.