No, the difficulty was that despite living two miles from Broughton Hall itself , despite Isabel’s telling her girlfriends over lunch in Walton Street what luck it was having the house ‘practically next door’, still, after three and a half years, they had never set foot in it, nor succeeded in meeting one single member of the family.
-- Narrator (Chapter 1 paragraph 4)

Importance: This quote describes the desire of some upper-middle class characters like the Eatons to be thought of as members of the upper class.

It is quite customary for the English, when asked if they have met so-and-so, to say, ‘Yes, but they wouldn’t remember me,’ or ‘Well, I’ve met them but I don’t know them,’ when they have not met them. This is because of a subconscious urge on their part to create the comforting illusion that England, or rather the England of the upper-middle and upper classes, is...
-- Narrator (Chapter 2 paragraph 12)