At present, and before our sentimentalists are a concrete, it would be profitless rashness to depict them.

When the great shots were fired off (Mrs.Chump being requested to depart, and refusing) Mrs.Lupin fluttered between the belligerents, doing her best to be a medium for the restoration of peace.

In repeating Mrs.Chump's remarks, which were rendered purposely strong with Irish spice by that woman, she choked; and when she conveyed to Mrs.Chump the counter-remarks of the ladies, she provoked utterances that almost killed her.

A sadder life is not to be imagined.

The perpetual irritation of a desire to indulge in her mortal weakness, and listening to the sleepless conscience that kept watch over it; her certainty that it would be better for her to laugh right out, and yet her incapacity to contest the justice of her nieces' rebuke; her struggle to resist Mrs.Chump, which ended in a sensation of secret shameful liking for her--all these warring influences within were seen in her behaviour.
"I have always said," observed Cornelia, "that she labours under a disease." What is more, she had always told Mrs.Lupin as much, and her sisters had echoed her.