He never seemed to read anything but the newspapers and the "Meteorological Journal:" was supposed to be the most weatherwise man in all L----.

He had another intellectual predilection,--whist; but in that he had less reputation for wisdom.
Perhaps it requires a rarer combination of mental faculties to win an odd trick than to divine a fall in the glass.

For the rest, the he-colonel, many years older than his wife, despite the thin youthful figure, was an admirable aid-de-camp to the general in command, Mrs.
Colonel; and she could not have found one more obedient, more devoted, or more proud of a distinguished chief.
In giving to Mrs.Colonel Poyntz the appellation of Queen of the Hill, let there be no mistake.

She was not a constitutional sovereign; her monarchy was absolute.

All her proclamations had the force of laws.
Such ascendancy could not have been attained without considerable talents for acquiring and keeping it.