Falloden and his party crossed her actual line of sight.

But she took no further notice; and he heard her laugh at something Radowitz was saying.
"Oh, Mr.Falloden, is that you--and Lady Laura! This is a pleasure!" He turned to see a lady whom he cordially detested--a head's wife, who happened to be an "Honourable," the daughter of a small peer, and terribly conscious of the fact.

She might have reigned in Oxford; she preferred to be a much snubbed dependent of London, and the smart people whose invitations she took such infinite trouble to get.

For she was possessed of two daughters, tall and handsome girls, who were an obsession to her, an irritation to other people, and a cause of blushing to themselves.

Her instinct for all men of family or title to be found among the undergraduates was amazingly extensive and acute; and she had paid much court to Falloden, as the prospective heir to a marquisate.