"My children, with the exception of Barnes.

Barnes, this is your uncle Colonel Thomas Newcome.

I have great pleasure, brother, in introducing you to my eldest son." A fair-haired young gentleman, languid and pale, and arrayed in the very height of fashion, made his appearance at this juncture in the parlour, and returned Colonel Newcome's greeting with a smiling acknowledgment of his own.

"Very happy to see you, I'm sure," said the young man.

"You find London very much changed since you were here?
Very good time to come--the very full of the season." Poor Thomas Newcome was quite abashed by this strange reception.