Rodan and The Ladies first of all fulfils a promise Marion and Kristoph made to each other, to come to Nice with a child of their own one day. Rodan isn’t exactly that child, but the visit to the Promenade des Anglaise in 1884 is a perfect time for the three of them. They feel like a family, and they are happy. The snobbery of the society they are mixing with is a source of amusement to them in this joyful time.

Marion’s flashback, then, to the Conservatory on Gallifrey, and introducing Rodan to her friends, is a continuation of that same element of snobbery and elitism, but in a different way. Marion feels equal to her friends and dismisses their comments about how it was impossible to guess that Rodan was a Caretaker by looking at her. What is significant there, of course, is that it is Madam Arpexia who makes that comment. Madam Arpexia, daughter of Lord and Lady Arpexia is, of course, Kristoph’s future second wife, Valena. When I first created her in the Theta Sigma stories I completely forgot that she would have been part of the same society as Marion. It was quite a way into the series before Valena mentioned to Chrístõ that she was a friend of his mother and would be glad to talk to him about her any time. Partly, this is because Chrístõ’s relationship with her at first is a bit cool and she is presented as a bit of a wicked stepmother type. Later, that image melts away and Chrístõ comes to understand her. In various episodes of the Marion and Kristoph saga we learn a bit more about Valena that fits in with the later stories.

Of course, the main part of this story is an object lesson in mercy and charity when Marion, the foreigner, with a child who isn’t of aristocratic birth, pays the bill for Shiony Malthis, the sister of her late sister in law, who has fallen on hard times. The moral high ground is Marion’s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promenade_des_Anglais