“Cleanliness is next to ungodliness,” Antonia discovered with her aloof air of mingled amusement and disdain.
“Oh, cleanliness matters even in one’s godly days. And softness. But when it comes to wheat-coloured or pale lilac ribbons drawn through, and the cling of faint scent and embroidered butterflies put on over the heart,—well, I do consider Theo’s extras take up rather a lot of time.” And Gillian added with mournful honesty: “I never used to mind a hole or two!”
Winnie put in: “It doesn’t matter in places that don’t show....”
“You never can be sure, though, can you, Winnie?” Deb teased her.
“Of course you can.”
“Winnie, are all your flirtations strictly spiritual?”
“Don’t be silly. One doesn’t flirt with men who can’t behave.”
“Even the best behaved of men are liable to be carried away by their feelings.”
Deb was naughtily poking up that layer of suburban respectability which was spread just underneath Winnie’s ordinary girlish tendency for what she termed “larking about.”
“A nice girl can always keep them in order,” complacently. “I’m sure I’m fond enough of a bit of fun, nobody can call me a prude, but I always make a rule ‘so far and no further.’”