How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
There was something about the luxury of the Welland house and the density of the Welland atmosphere, so charged with minute observances and exactions, that always stole into his system like a narcotic. (21.46)
Each family has its own identity, and the Wellands are no exception. To someone from outside the family like Newland, the Wellands's way of doing things can be suffocating.
Quote #5
The mere idea of a woman's appealing to her family to screen her husband's business honor was inadmissible, since it was the one thing that the Family, as an institution, could not do. (27.19)
Huh. There's an interesting contrast between Madame Olenska's situation and Regina Beaufort's. Remember when the van der Luydens came to Ellen's defense and threw her that party? Blood is thicker than water, but cash money is the thickest substance known to man.
Quote #6
There were certain things that had to be done, and if done at all, done handsomely and thoroughly; and one of these, in the old New York code, was the tribal rally around a kinswoman about to be eliminated from the tribe. (33.15)
Madame Olenska's going away party is described as a "tribal" ritual, even though the ritual described is elimination. Everything should be done in the best of taste, even the 1870s equivalent of sending someone to sleep with the fishes.