] for that stage of the mysterious, ludicrous, frightening English class system? You are in the gentry whenever people solidly in the gentry invite you to their property for a social occasion of whatever length, unless they invite you to expose you. I think JA dealt with this subject very well in S&S when she had Elinor and Marianne learn the odiousness of their snobbery toward Mrs. Jennings. Perhaps the finest portrait of a snob in JA is Caroline Bingley, whose very aggressive snobbery is based on her being in the first generation in her family that inherited (rather than earned) their status. Mrs. Elton, however,is a pretty eloquent snob laughing at a family who bought their big house a few year's after her brother-in-law bought his and then (gasp!) expected to be on equal terms with him.