No, but maybe you could skip the florist and tone down the table settings.
Having been convicted of the libel he was liberated later in the year under circumstances that only became clear in 1864, when six letters were discovered in the Record Office from Defoe to a Government official, Charles Delaf aye, which, according to William Lee, established the fact that in 1718 at least Defoe was doing not only political work, but that it was of a somewhat equivocal kind - that he was, in fact, sub-editing the Jacobite Mist's Journal, under a secret agreement with the government that he should tone down the sentiments and omit objectionable items. He had, in fact, been released on condition of becoming a government agent.
Possibly the narrator, or redactor, desired to tone down the traces of mythology.
Later editions of Melanchthon's Loci Communes, generously protected by Luther, drop out or tone down Luther's favourite doctrine of predestination.
Prince Andrew, who had evidently wished to tone down the awkwardness of Pierre's remarks, rose and made a sign to his wife that it was time to go.
