Amid distress and humiliation
Amid the direful calamities of the time
An acute note of distress in her voice
An agreeably grave vacuity
An air half quizzical and half deferential
An air of affected civility
An air of being meticulously explicit
An air of inimitable, scrutinizing, superb impertinence
An air of stern, deep, and irredeemable gloom hung over and pervaded all
An air of uncanny familiarity