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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: last work on "Mendelism"; so that even to Mrs. Leveret's
fluttered perceptions it was clear that Mrs. Ballinger didn't in
the least know what Osric Dane was likely to talk about, and had
taken measures to be prepared for anything. Mrs. Leveret felt
like a passenger on an ocean steamer who is told that there is no
immediate danger, but that she had better put on her life-belt.
It was a relief to be roused from these forebodings by Miss Van
Vluyck's arrival.
"Well, my dear," the new-comer briskly asked her hostess, "what
subjects are we to discuss to-day?"
Mrs. Ballinger was furtively replacing a volume of Wordsworth by
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