>I figure "white" just goes along with "highly respectable" in the >conventional rhetorical litany of attributes accorded a woman one is proud >to have in one's company, at that declarative time But...who WAS that >white woman? Olivia Langdon, I'd assume. I think he was courting her by that time, and I seem to recall they went to see Dickens at least once together. And in a more subjective vein, he really does sound like a proud suitor in this passage -- to my ears, anyway. As for the use of "white," I've always taken that as something of a joke. -- Bob G.