[…] whereupon ensues a long course of theatrical speculatings and practisings […]

There's no stopping her once she gets going.

In the same town a country squire, a member of the county society, a scion of an old and honorable family, was guilty of the indiscretion of marrying a schoolteacher. He can lunch and club and bachelorize with any gentleman in the county, but society closes its doors absolutely upon his unfortunate wife ; and she is shut up to herself, her husband and her children.

At that time Ainsworth had been manufacturing and selling poker machines in NSW for nineteen years.