I pardon Mrs.Ponto, from my heart I do, especially as I wouldn't turn out of the best bed-room, in spite of all her hints; but held my ground in the chintz tester, vowing that Lord Gules, as a young man, was quite small and hardy enough to make himself comfortable elsewhere.
The great Ponto party was a very august one.

The Hawbucks came in their family coach, with the blood-red band emblazoned all over it: and their man in yellow livery waited in country fashion at table, only to be exceeded in splendour by the Hipsleys, the opposition baronet, in light blue.

The old Ladies Fitzague drove over in their little old chariot with the fat black horses, the fat coachman, the fat footman--( why are dowagers' horses and footmen always fat ?) And soon after these personages had arrived, with their auburn fronts and red beaks and turbans, came the Honourable and Reverend Lionel Pettipois, who with General and Mrs.Sago formed the rest of the party.

'Lord and Lady Frederick Howlet were asked, but they have friends at Ivybush,' Mrs.
Ponto told me; and that very morning, the Castlehaggards sent an excuse, as her ladyship had a return of the quinsy.

Between ourselves, Lady Castlehaggard's quinsy always comes on when there is dinner at the Evergreens.
If the keeping of polite company could make a woman happy, surely my kind hostess Mrs.Ponto was on that day a happy woman.