Then there was Mrs.Leslie, a pretty widow, rather poor, who was glad to receive civilities from Mrs.Roby, and was Emily Wharton's pet aversion.

Mrs.
Leslie had said impertinent things to her about Ferdinand Lopez, and she had snubbed Mrs.Leslie.But Mrs.Leslie was serviceable to Mrs.
Roby, and had now been asked to her great dinner party.
But the two most illustrious guests have not yet been mentioned.

Mrs.
Roby had secured a lord,--an absolute peer of Parliament! This was no less a man than Lord Mongrober, whose father had been a great judge in the early part of the century, and had been made a peer.
The Mongrober estates were not supposed to be large, nor was the Mongrober influence at this time extensive.

But this nobleman was seen about a good deal in society when the dinners given were supposed to be worth eating.

He was a fat, silent, red-faced, elderly gentleman, who said very little, and who when he did speak seemed always to be in an ill-humour.