"If that were the case, fashion would go altogether to the wolves," she scoffed in answer. "Show me a young man who claims to dress himself, and I will show you either a dandy or a liar. After all, I am sure most young men would agree that it is more...fashionable to have a valet see to him before an event than his mother!"

Not that Rufina would not have loved to continue serving that very purpose for her own young man, but she was all too aware of how he had been pulling away in recent years. It was, she expected, altogether normal, but that fact did not lessen its sting.