The visitors are in the room below--a scene of ruin and rueful faces;--the supper that was displayed there, in all its state, is done for. Alas!--the chandelier has been polked off the hook--a mishap in which few sympathise, for the floor is said to be safe; Mr. Lark being the first to propose their going above, as he jokingly observed--to crack the _party_-wall. Now, for that vastly-relished valse, the "Teetotum"--liked none the less for the late excitement!--_deux temps_ against _trois temps_--the latter getting worsted; and the Brown girls, who danced every dance, with certain gentlemen, only, more and more unpopular. [Illustration] As the evening progresses, the Wall-flowers become bolder;--some finding partners for quadrilles; others edging up to the vacant recesses, rendering it now possible to get out at the door, and obtain air on the landing--where several young fellows are congregated:--there young Lark was laughing, we knew, at the Rev. Jewel St. Jones, the clerk in orders at St. Stiffs, doing the _cavalier seul_--for we heard him say something about early missal, or primitive Christian style,--joking the reverend gentleman's partner, Miss what's-her-name, the "lamp-post," from No. 4, Bury Court, St. Mary Axe--that washed-out, faint, fair creature,--she, that looks as if you could see the back buttons of her dress through from the front--that lady--well, do you see her?--It is said her mother keeps her in a dark closet, that she may look like a consumptive geranium:--however, Mr. Lark said _he_ did not believe it; and, as no one said they did, the matter ended. The stairs soon become a popular observatory--several Wall-flowers joining the knot; one of whom mildly remarks something about three silver-grey silks, in the fore-ground, and their being "much worn;" which Mr. Lark fully agreed in, as, he said, they appeared to have been _turned_ several times--a joke, at which the Wall-flower faintly smiles, for the three silver-greys are his sisters:--however, nothing daunted, he is at it again, remarking upon marriage, and people that look married; illustrating his theory by pointing out the juvenility of an aunt, who he says is a virgin:--Lark retorting--"_virging_ on fifty!"--a notification that begets much laughter, making the Wall-flower feel at a discount, and more than ever desire to say something smart; so, he pitches upon a gentleman with parenthetical (bowed) legs, observing that Brown has invited his tailor; moreover, wagering two to one, that if the gentleman, so libelled, were asked to look at the splashes on the calf of his leg, he would take it up in front, and examine it in his hand, like a nabob or tailor, used to sit upon the floor; were he a Christian, he would look at it over his shoulder:--here the Wall-flower turned for applause, looking over his own shoulder to illustrate the anecdote--there to discover, Captain de Camp, the gentleman who introduced "Parenthesis," a staff doctor, from