'I have been kept in-doors by a cold ever since Sunday, or I should not have rested without seeing you.

What have you done with those wretched singers, Mr.Barton ?' 'O, we have got a new choir together, which will go on very well with a little practice.

I was quite determined that the old set of singers should be dismissed.

I had given orders that they should not sing the wedding psalm, as they call it, again, to make a new-married couple look ridiculous, and they sang it in defiance of me.

I could put them into the Ecclesiastical Court, if I chose for to do so, for lifting up their voices in church in opposition to the clergyman.' 'And a most wholesome discipline that would be,' said the Countess, 'indeed, you are too patient and forbearing, Mr.Barton.For my part, _I_ lose _my_ temper when I see how far you are from being appreciated in that miserable Shepperton.' If, as is probable, Mr.Barton felt at a loss what to say in reply to the insinuated compliment, it was a relief to him that dinner was announced just then, and that he had to offer his arm to the Countess.
As Mr.Bridmain was leading Mrs.Barton to the dining-room, he observed, 'The weather is very severe.' 'Very, indeed,' said Milly.
Mr.Bridmain studied conversation as an art.