midnight
Cavendish ladies were notable housewives , and could converse eloquently on pickling , preserving , baking and the many details of domestic economy , while as regarded the fashions , I verily believe they could have enlightened Worth himself on some important particulars . I used to feel sadly out of place , and sat very often silent and constrained , thinking of my dearer , and more satisfying companionships of books , and sea , and flowers , and the fair face of nature generally , and wondering if I could ever get , like them , absorbed in such humble things , getting for instance my pickles nicely greened , and of a proper degree of crispness , and my preserves , and jellies prepared with equal perfection for diseased and fastidious palates . `` Why ca n't they talk of their minds , and the food these must relish , and assimilate , instead of all the time being devoted to the body ; how it must be fed and clothed ? '' I asked , with perhaps too evident contempt , of Mrs. Flaxman , one evening as we drove home under the midnight stars , after one of these entertainments . `` My child , it is natural that people should talk on subjects that most interest them . Not every one has vision clear enough to penetrate beyond the tangible and visible . '' `` Then , in what are the Cavendish aristocracy better than Mrs. Blake , and that class ?