A brilliant and paradoxical talker
A burning sense of shame and horror
A century of disillusionment
A certain catholicity of taste [catholicity = universality]
A cheap and coarse cynicism
A civilizing agency of conspicuous value
A cleanness and probity of life [probity = integrity; uprightness]
A commendable restraint
A condescending and patronizing spirit
A confused and troublesome time
A conscientious anxiety to do the right thing
A conspicuous and crowning service
A constant source of surprise and delight
A contemptible species of mockery
A convenient makeshift
A copious torrent of pleasantry
A course of arrogant obstinacy
A crumb of consolation
A crystallized embodiment of the age
A cynical and selfish hedonist
A dangerous varnish of refinement
A dead theological dogma
A decorous and well-intentioned person
A deep and most impressive solemnity
A deep and strange suggestiveness
A deep authentic impression of disinterestedness
A dereliction of duty
A disaster of the first magnitude
A distorted and pessimistic view of life
A dogmatic and self-righteous spirit
A duel of brains
A dull collocation of words
A fastidious sense of fitness
A fatal moral hollowness
A feeling of lofty remoteness
A feminine excess of inconsequence
A final and irrevocable settlement
A firmness tempered by the most scrupulous courtesy
A fitting interval for penitence
A flippant rejoinder
A flood of external impressions
A flourish of rhetoric
A fund of curious information
A furtive groping after knowledge
A gambler's desperate chance
A ghastly mixture of defiance and conceit
A glaring example of rapacity [rapacity = plundering]
A graceful nonentity
A great and many-sided personality
A great capacity for generous indignation