Both Uses of
ascendancy
in
The House of Mirth
- She liked their elegance, their lightness, their lack of emphasis: even the self-assurance which at times was so like obtuseness now seemed the natural sign of social ascendency.†
Chpt 1.4 *
- The gratification of being welcomed in high company, and of making her own ascendency felt there, so that she found herself figuring once more as the "beautiful Miss Bart" in the interesting journal devoted to recording the least movements of her cosmopolitan companions—all these experiences tended to throw into the extreme background of memory the prosaic and sordid difficulties from which she had escaped.†
Chpt 2.2
Definition:
-
(ascendancy) the state that exists when one person or group has power over another