“But a handsome woman at the head of your table, who knows how to dress and how to sit, and how to get in and out of her carriage--who will not disgrace her lord by her ignorance, or fret him by her coquetry, or disparage him by her talent--how beautiful a thing it is! For my own part I think that Griselda Grantly was born to be the wife of a great English peer.” It is comforting to know that in the midst of these lofty circles the daughter of the archdeacon did not lose the virtue of humility; for we read in a subsequent narrative:[208] “But, now and again, since her august marriage, she had laid her coronated head upon one of the old rectory pillows for a night or two, and on such occasions all the Plumsteadians had been loud in praise of her condescension.” The difference between the novelists just discussed and the remaining half of the list, in the use of irony, is more easily perceived than defined. It can only be suggested by metaphor. Confectionery may be flavored, for instance with citron in lumps or liquid peppermint. It is evident that the former is more visible and detachable, but that the latter affects more pervasively the quality of the product. In the concoctions already mentioned, from Lytton to Trollope, it is easy enough to stick in one’s thumb and pull out a plum. All the plums being pulled out, the character of the remaining portion would not be radically changed. But peppermint cannot be extracted except by a process of chemical dissolution; and if it could, the taste of the whole would be altered. Yet it is not patent to eye or finger, though not wanting in stimulus to other senses. These two ingredients, however, are not mutually exclusive. The permeated may also be sufficiently glomerate to permit of some dissection; only the operation is less fully explanatory of the whole. For example, we may extract from Peacock his description of the Abbey of Rubygill, situated--[209] “* * * in a spot which seemed adapted by nature to be the retreat of monastic mortification, being on the banks of a fine trout-stream, and in the midst of woodland coverts, abounding with excellent game.” Or of the sword of Matilda, which went--[210] “* * * nigh to fathom even that extraordinary depth of brain which always by divine grace furnishes the interior of a head-royal.” Or the reply of Mr. Cypress to Dr. Folliott’s statement of the Brotherhood of Man:[211] “Yes, sir, as the hangman is of the thief; the squire of the poacher; the judge of the libeller; the lawyer of his client; the statesman of his colleague; the bubble-blower of the bubble-buyer; the slave-driver of the negro: as these are brethren, so am I and the worthies in question.” But this would give little idea of Peacock’s prevailing attitude,--a cheerfully sardonic amusement at the state of human affairs, expressed most frequently by means of an ironic juxtaposition of Past and Present.