Mr Rice Rice was in the law, and was at that moment engaged in discussing the affairs of the deceased Mr.Griffith Jenkins and his quondam articled pupil, Howel, with Rowland Prothero across Miss Nugent.

He was a portly well-to-do-looking man, with a bald head and good-humoured countenance.

His wife was even more portly than himself, and sat, in black velvet and marabout feathers, as stately as a princess at a drawing-room.

The task of keeping up the family reputation of the ancient house of Rice Rice devolved in a great measure on this lady, assisted by her daughter; and, it must be said, that if any one could have doubted the antiquity of this honourable race after an hour's conversation with this enthusiastic pair he must have been a sceptic indeed! Family pride is a common weakness, but one could almost call it the stronghold of Mrs.Rice Rice, just as the various archaeological and historical glories of Wales and the Welsh was the fortress of Mr.
Jonathan Prothero.
It was into these towers of strength that these worthies retreated on all occasions.

One saw the bulwark in Mrs.Rice Rice's ample, immoveable figure, and in the glance of the eyes that looked over the somewhat mountainous cheek; one saw it in a certain extension of the chin, turn of the mouth, and slightly _retrousse_ nose.