"I am an old woman, but I am not too old, thank Heaven, to be shocked!"
"... wandering about in the warm starlight like an indolent sylph ..."
"comme il faut"
"a triumphantly obsequious salute"
"persiflage"
"invidious"
"Daisy, on this occasion, continued to present herself as an inscrutable combination of audacity and innocence."
"'They are hopelessly vulgar,' said Mrs. Costello. 'Whether or no[t] being hopelessly vulgar is being 'bad' is a question for the metaphysicians.'"
"... the room was filled with southern sunshine ..."
"... reflected upon that profundity of Italian cleverness which enables people to appear more gracious in proportion as they are more acutely disappointed."
"jocosely"
"... Daisy pursued with the prettiest serenity."
"I was sure it would be awfully poky."
"Elle s'affiche"
"cavaliere avvocato"
"... she had a sweetness and softness that reverted instinctively to
the pardon of offenses."
"... the embrasure of the window ..."
"... if nocturnal meditations in the Colosseum are recommended by the poets, they are deprecated by the doctors."
"... from a sanitary point of view, of a delicate young girl lounging away the evening in this nest of malaria. What if she were a clever little reprobate? that was no reason for her dying of the perniciosa."
Spoiler:
Daisy had malaria.
from online analyses:
"At her funeral, Giovanelli tells Winterbourne that Daisy was the most innocent young lady he ever met."
"Winterbourne's Realization: Winterbourne realizes he misjudged Daisy and that she was truly innocent, not malicious. He admits to his aunt that he was wrong about her."
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My 2 Cents (vanilla; peppermint):
Near the end, I remembered that you can't trust the narrator or protagonist and began to think the story was really about him more than it was about her. What a good reminder that perception is as variable a truth as "what it means" in art.
