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Chapter 49
Near the Close

She has been educated infinitely more than most
Mr. Harding comments upon Grace Crawley's education as a notable quality of her character.  [EB]

Chapter 50
Lady Lufton's Proposition

High-souled sufferer
"High-souled," used here to describe Grace Crawley, is a literal rendering of the Latin parts of the word "magnanimous."  In English this word now means "generous."  Trollope here recalls the classical (and archaic English) use of the word to mean "brave" or "courageous."  [EB]

Aegis of first-rate county respectability

The aegis is a shield, or sometimes a type of garment, wielded by Zeus and often used by Athena.  The term has been borrowed into English to refer to a shield in a more figurative sense.  This is seen in the narrator's description of Mrs. Robarts and Lady Lufton's kindness to Grace Crawley.  Using the word "aegis" elevates the power of the social status that Lufton's offer could confer upon Grace.
Cassell's Dictionary of Classical Mythology  [EB]

Chapter 51
Mrs Dobbs Broughton Piles her Fagots

Not an elysium
Mrs. Broughton is described as being aware that her marriage and material comfort have not created an "elysium" for her.  Elysium, in classical mythology, was the name of the beautiful realm of the underworld in which the fortunate were able to spend a happy afterlife.  [EB]

Something of an elysium might yet be created
The allusion to elysium continues as Mrs. Broughton is said to have once thought that her flirtation with Conway Dalrymple might have added something to her life that might make it an "elysium."  [EB]

Did very little towards providing the necessary elysium
Trollope continues the previous references, describing how Mrs. Broughton feels that her husband's unromantic nature has contributed to her sense that her "elysium" is lacking.  [EB]

The lists of Cupid
Conway is described as viewing the staged romance that Mrs. Broughton seeks as a "mock tournament."  The reference to Cupid that is part of this description is fitting, since Cupid's arrows caused love rather than physical wounds, just as this "tournament" employs "blunted swords and half-severed lances."  [EB]

Had not some god saved him
Conway Dalrymple is "saved" by Clara Van Siever's interruption of his conversation with Mrs. Broughton; it is as if some god had sent Clara to them none too soon.  This is reminiscent of the situation in Horace's Satires 1.9, in which the speaker is similarly saved from an irritating conversation by Apollo, who sends someone to interrupt.  [EB & RR]

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