Various and contradictory were the accounts they brought home.

Men are so stupid at seeing and remembering things.

Old Mr.Muddle came back bemused with sherry, declaring that he thought Mr.Puffington was as old as he was (sixty-two), while Mrs.
Mousetrap thought he wasn't more than thirty at the outside.

She described him as 'painfully handsome.' Mr.Slowan couldn't tell whether the drawing-room furniture was chintz, or damask, or what it was; indeed, he wasn't sure that he was in the drawing-room at all; while Mr.Gapes insisted that the carpet was a Turkey carpet, whereas it was a royal cut pile.

It might be that the smartness and freshness of everything confused the bucolic minds, little accustomed to wholesale grandeur.
Mr.Puffington quite eclipsed all the old country families with their 'company rooms' and put-away furniture.