House of Mirth

ormolu

No insect hangs its nest on threads as frail as those which will sustain the weight of human vanity;

If we're all the raw stuff of the cosmic effects, one would rather be the fire that tempers a sword than the fish that dyes a purple cloak.

dissimulation,

It would have been impossible for Mrs. Peniston to be heroic on a desert island,

sable