confabulations—informal conversations; chats.
mezzotints—engravings or prints produced on copper or steel plates by scraping or polishing parts of roughened surfaces to produce impressions of light and shade.
Mauretania—a fashionable British Cunard Line ship which made its maiden voyage in 1907. A sister to the Lusitania which was torpedoed during World War I, the Mauretania was known for its fast ocean crossings. Here, Dallas suggests he and Newland take the Mauretania.
proclivities—natural or habitual tendencies or inclinations, especially toward something discreditable.
trenchant—keen; penetrating; incisive.
ethereally— in a way that is not of the earth; heavenly.
