How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
I trimmed the pen, then found I didn't know how to begin. I could call him "Char" quite easily, but writing it was another matter. "Dear Char" looked disrespectful on the page. "Dear Prince Charmont" or "Dear Highness" seemed too formal. (22.54)
Yeah, how do you address a prince you might've been flirting with, and definitely have been sliding down stair rails with? That's the kind of thing finishing school should teach.
Quote #8
I stayed out of my stepfamily's way as much as possible, and the longer I worked as a scullery maid, and the filthier I got, the less Hattie and Mum Olga tormented me. I think they gloried in my squalor as proof of my baseness. (24.7)
To some high-class folks in the book, dirt = poverty. So keeping Ella dirty is a way of lowering her status, at least temporarily. It's not entirely sound logic, but what do you expect from people as shallow as Dame Olga and Hattie?
Quote #9
"Today I am too old to marry, a hundred at least. I have spent the last eighty years and more listening to a lady detail the pedigree of every dinner guest tonight." (24.40)
In this letter to Char, Ella refers to Hattie's penchant for obsessing over the social status of, gee, everyone. Maybe that's how the rich entertain themselves in the absence of scandals to gossip about?