"Ah - to warn you," says Maz, "there's a rare point of etiquette in force today - if you see a haut-woman outside of a bubble, the polite thing to do is behave as though the bubble is still there. Because its loss is considered a great loss of face, you see, especially coming as it does with marrying out of the haut genome and into ghem-rank. You must never directly address a haut-wife, even if she's standing right in front of you. Put all inquiries through her ghem-husband, and wait for him to transmit the replies - and never stare directly at them."