Thus she was an admirable mimic, certainly in itself the least ladylike condescension of humour.

But when she mimicked, it was with so tranquil a gravity, or so royal a good humour, that one could only say, "What talents for society dear Mrs.Colonel has!" As she was a gentlewoman emphatically, so the other colonel, the he-colonel, was emphatically a gentleman; rather shy, but not cold; hating trouble of every kind, pleased to seem a cipher in his own house.

If the sole study of Mrs.Colonel had been to make her husband comfortable, she could not have succeeded better than by bringing friends about him and then taking them off his hands.

Colonel Poyntz, the he-colonel, had seen, in his youth, actual service; but had retired from his profession many years ago, shortly after his marriage.
He was a younger brother of one of the principal squires in the country; inherited the house he lived in, with some other valuable property in and about L----, from an uncle; was considered a good landlord; and popular in Low Town, though he never interfered in its affairs.

He was punctiliously neat in his dress; a thin youthful figure, crowned with a thick youthful wig.