These were gentle clothes for genteel ladies.
Vella said a number of things that no genteel lady would have said.
Mummy was a perfect lady, very genteel, but she wasn't strong, couldn't cope with adversity.
It was the host's profound misfortune to have been overcome by that too genteel lady.
It was just her way to be the genteel "lady of the manor."
She knows just what genteel young ladies should and should not do.
By the late 19th century, genteel ladies with discreet access to doctors and legal opiates made up the majority of addicts.
Stevens was known for his "elegant interiors featuring genteel ladies lost in their reveries".
When playing a genteel lady, as she does here, she becomes very actressy.
Of course, it doesn't take long for them to realize that living among the genteel ladies is not for them.