One violation of propriety must however be noticed in this magnificent hall, and that is, that the variegated and comprehensive taste of the noble owner had seen fit to add to its other decorations a collection of busts, vases, and statues, of divers degrees and gradations of sculptural merit, and bringing together manifold incongruities of association. Yet it must be confessed that, in the eyes and to the taste of Miss Glossop, the whole scene was truly magnificent, and the white alabaster vases were, by their brightness, a fine relief to the old brown family pictures, and the sable dinginess of the various suits of armour. After gazing about on the grand scene which surrounded her, and by various exclamations of admiration expressing her sense of the great magnificence of the apartment, Miss Glossop summed up the result of all the particular and individual emotions of admiration by assuming an affected attitude, lifting up her eyes and hands and voice, saying, “How truly superb!” For such a compliment, and from such lips, and accompanied with such an attitude, and uttered in such a tone, the Right Honorable Lord Spoonbill could not, of course, be ungrateful. His lordship therefore expressed himself pleased that the lady could see anything worthy of admiration. Lord Spoonbill however was not quite so great a simpleton as not to discern that the lady to whom he was exhibiting the wonders of Smatterton castle, was very silly and very affected; and as his lordship, in acknowledging the politeness of the lady in expressing so heartily her commendation of the taste displayed in the decorations of the great hall, betrayed himself to be one of the Spoonbill family, and no other than the very heir to the title and estate; and as the lady on this discovery, or more properly speaking on this corroboration of her suspicions, did set herself forth to display still finer graces and more ridiculous airs, his lordship thought it no little amusement to provoke and observe the silly one’s affectations. From the great hall they proceeded to the saloon, which for variety’s sake was decorated in a fashion not the same as the hall, but almost as different as possible. The hall was dark, and the saloon was light, and its furniture and decorations were in the most modern taste. The pictures were numerous, but the splendor of their frames was sufficient to eclipse the glories of the canvass, and as the chairs and the mouldings of the room were also profusely covered with gold, the apartment looked very much like the shop of a carver and gilder and picture-frame-maker. The wicked libellers of the gentler sex have, in some of their satirical descriptions, represented the female heart as being strongly smitten with the love of gold. Be this true or not, it is very certain that the young lady shewed symptoms of being quite thunderstruck at the splendor of this grand saloon.