"This place was a gem," she said, turning around and looking over the moulding and the crumbling plaster around the crooked chandelier.  "It was the center of everything.  I've read the old society articles.  To be invited here was... it meant you'd made it.  The Blacks were acknowledging you as someone they'd entertain.  Even the Malfoy's were upstart pretenders in their eyes.  Now look at it."