"I care little for backstairs gossip.

"Very interesting, no doubt," said Collins, dropping his glass, "to those who care for backstairs intrigue.

For some things said in his hearing were distinctly not pretty, and made one wonder if Prince Victor's deep-rooted confidence in an England mortally cankered with social discontent were not grounded in a surprising familiarity with backstairs morale.

diplomacy, politics; Machiavelism; jobbery, backstairs influence.

The son of peasants, without patronage, fortune or backstairs influence, he had raised himself, a rare and difficult thing nowadays; therefore he was proud of himself, and would say to anyone who would listen to him: "I am the son of my own deeds.

I had, to begin with, a sort of backstairs knowledge; for in my teens I struggled for life in the office of an Irish gentleman who acted as land agent and private banker for many persons of distinction.

His claim to backstairs influence having been challenged, he had resorted to the emotional appeal that is the simplest means of controlling any crowd of men anywhere.

They may not say very much, but it is gradually discovered that they do not enjoy meeting over saloons, at the head of two or three flights of grimy backstairs, or where the street has earned a bad name.

If we say "Boo! Shoo!" or any harsh word to him he doubles up the backstairs to the attic and kicks earth over our faces at three-minute intervals all night.

There is something rather contemptible, seen from the ordinary standards of intellectual integrity, in the position of a minister who waits to make up his mind whether a given measure, say the disestablishment of the Irish Church, is in itself and on the merits desirable, until the official who runs diligently up and down the backstairs of the party, tells him that the measure is practicable and required in the interests of the band.

Plurals by composition: backstairs, cocklestairs, firearms, headquarters, hotcockles, spatterdashes, self-affairs.

"A large and lightsome backstairs leads up to an entry above."Ib., p. 260.

"A large and lightsome back stairway (or flight of backstairs) leads up to an entry above.

I could only guess at some of their stories as they were written in lines of pain about the eyes and mouths of poor old spinsters such as Balzac met hiding their misery in backstairs flats of Paris tenementsthey c

And while Hill had to introduce himself and talk to Miss Haysman clumsily over mangled guinea-pigs in the laboratory, this Wedderburn, in some backstairs way, had access to her social altitudes, and could converse in a polished argot that Hill understood perhaps, but felt incapable of speaking.

To the aristocracy of the Church, to the true sacerdotal caste; but we who are in religion are people of the backstairs.

It was not an easy thing to manage, as any one may find by trying,nor would I advise young ladies, as a general thing, to adopt that form of exercise,but the end, not the means, was my object, and by skilful diplomacy I got it up the backstairs and through my window, out upon the roof of the porch directly below.

We sailed from Holdfast Road, on December 7th, but in consequence of light winds, with occasional very heavy squalls, it was not until the afternoon of the 10th, that we got out to sea by Backstairs Passage, between Cape Jervis and Kangaroo Island.

We sailed from South Australia on February 7th, but it was not until the forenoon of the 9th that we cleared Backstairs Passage, passing half a mile from the reef fronting the east end of Kangaroo Island, in 16 fathoms; the south-eastern part of this island is a steep rocky shore, with few sinuosities.

Later on Kate Cumberland came down the backstairs and slipped into the kitchen.

It was a formal meal shared with the two nurses and the two pages of the backstairs.

" A few moments later she hurried with her bowl into the pantry; there she left it unfinished and crept noiselessly up the backstairs to her room.