'What is the utility of such accumulations ?' he asked.

'Their originals are but clay now--mere forgotten dust, not worthy a moment's inquiry or reflection at this distance of time.

Nothing can retain the spirit, and why should we preserve the shadow of the form ?--London has been very full this year, sir, I have been told ?' 'It has,' said Somerset, and he asked if they had been up that season.
It was plain that the matter with which Sir William De Stancy least cared to occupy himself before visitors was the history of his own family, in which he was followed with more simplicity by his daughter Charlotte.
'No,' said the baronet.

'One might be led to think there is a fatality which prevents it.

We make arrangements to go to town almost every year, to meet some old friend who combines the rare conditions of being in London with being mindful of me; but he has always died or gone elsewhere before the event has taken place....