pseudo-importance

Updated: May 26, 2025

I will defy a short-sighted person to distinguish her nursery-maid from her own sister at a little distance; and, being somewhat afflicted that way myself, I frequently nod to a well-dressed soubrette, thinking she is at least a leading member of the aristocracy of the town; and this is the more amusing, as in all colonial towns and in the haute societé of the Republic very considerable magnificence is affected, and a rage for rank and pseudo-importance is not a little the order of the day.

Sir Richard Henry Bonnycastle - Canada and the Canadians: Volume I