They came in at last.

But Lady Clonbrony had no reason to regret for their sake the statira couch.

It would have been lost upon them, as was everything else which she had prepared with so much pains and cost to excite their admiration, They came resolute not to admire.

Skilled in the art of making others unhappy, they just looked round with an air of apathy.
'Ah! you've had Soho!--Soho has done wonders for you here! Vastly well!--Vastly well!--Soho's very clever in his way!' Others of great importance came in, full of some slight accident that had happened to themselves, or their horses, or their carriages; and, with privileged selfishness, engrossed the attention of all within their sphere of conversation.

Well, Lady Clonbrony got over all this, and got over the history of a letter about a chimney that was on fire, a week ago, at the Duke of V's old house, in Brecknockshire.