style="font-size:15px;"> rumty-too – ordinary, common.
8
Married Women’s Property Act – from 1882 it granted married women the right to control their own property.
9
to have gone to the dogs – to go to the dogs = to be broke, to go to hell.
10
underwriter – a member of insurance union.
11
bombazine – fabric made of silk and wool.
12
vieux jeu – out of date (French).
13
cut-away coat – a coat whith its skirts cut off in the front.
14
William Morris (1834–1896) – a textile designer, artist and socialist, representative of the so-called Pre-Raphaelite group.
15
Marlborough days – the annual street festival held on the Saturday before Mother’s Day.
16
put her oar in – an idiom, meaning “giving one’s opinion, even unasked for”.
17
be behind-hand – in debt.
18
daverdy – dialectal for “dowdy”: unkept, faded.
19
‘La Donna mobile’ – from Guiseppe Verdi’s “Rigoletto”.
20
the Indian Civil – Indian Civil Service, administrative elite, composed of officers recruited by competitive examination (Government of India Act of 1858).
21
swing a cat – an idiom “no room to swing a cat” means an awkwardly small space. They assume that “a cat” here is a whip used to punish sailors.
22
‘R.S.V.P.’ — Répondez s’il vous plaît. – Answer please (if you would come). (French).
23
opoponax – sweet myrrh.
24
welshed – to welsh = to cheat, not to pay the debt.
25
Taglioni – Marie Taglioni (1804–1884) was a prominent Italian ballet dancer.
26
pooty – pretty.
27
long-headed – shrewd, wise.
28
‘Down-by-the-starn’ – undertaker’s, funeral office.
29
to buttonhole – to detain in conversation.
30
in toto – completely, entirely (Latin).
31
sociable – an open four-wheeled carriage with two double seats facing each other.
32
Victoria – an elegant French carriage (a phaeton) that had one forward-facing seat for two passengers.
33
brougham – a carriage, had an enclosed body with two doors and it sat two.
34
dawgs – slang, meaning “men,” “buddies,” “dudes” etc.
35
knicknack – a dainty little trinket or ornament.
36
Bart. – a traditional abbreviation from baronet, the holder of hereditary title.
37
infra dig – from infra dignitatem (Latin) – humiliating.
38
wallflowers – girls without partners to a dance.
39
when the shoe pinched – from the proverb “Only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches,” meaning “it’s hard to know how much someone else is suffering”.
40
