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This sort of reading identifies the whole novel with a naïve Clarissan view...

I must introduce you, said Mr. Griffiths, when he called on me one morning, to a countryman of mine, who now rivals Foneron in giving dinners; but whose luxurious extravagance bids fair soon to eclipse the unostentatious comfortability of Foneron's Friday parties.

These are the horse latitudes of fashion, when it's O.K. not to think about clothes, if only for 15 minutes.