"I am surely the last person you ought to suspect unequal to that task! It is quite unjust to me, dear Comtesse! Have you forgotten the woman whom Lady Ellersby and myself thought we could use? whom we actually paraded for a season, maintained she was a beauty, and a person 'qui feroit fureur;' and after all, when she failed, left her planté in the midst of the promised honours; actually ejected her from Almack's, and if we met, walked over her as a person whose face we had never seen!--Was not this carried with a proper spirit?" "Yes, under my suggestion; but I could have told you from de first that her _grand nigaud de mari_ would be always _à ses trousses_, and prevent her being of the least service to us. It is quite a mistake to attempt such a measure, _ça sent le roman_, and I do hate all romance--Dat young milor, (vat you name him?) dat was at your house de oder morning, Lor--Lor Albert D'Esterre; I don't think, upon my word, never I don't, dat he will do us any good, I have my doubts dat he is only _un espion_, and--" Whilst the Comtesse was speaking, the door of the box opened, and there entered, with an air of affected refinement, a person whose appearance ill suited with his outward show of courtliness--his face was red and large, with grey eyes, his hair inclining to flaxen, and his whole figure round and ill-formed. This physiognomy, however, if Sir William Temple would have allowed himself to be natural, was an index to his disposition, for he was _au fond_ good-natured; but an overweening vanity--a desire to be fine, and be considered one of the beau-monde, had spoilt the man, and he became insufferably pompous and conceited--in proportion as his exertions in good dinners _in_ the season, a good country house _out_ of it, and a vote in parliament, made him successful in obtaining the notice of people of rank, and of the minister. The first thought his cook good, his chateau, at an easy distance from London, convenient--and the last, remembering the old woman's adage, considered that every little helped, and that Sir William's vote, so long as it was on the right side, was as good as any other. He had made his way thus far with tolerable facility, but his ambition grew by feeding on, and was only to be satisfied by the attainment of the highest distinction of the _ton_ of the day; such as in his estimate was conferred by the protecting smile of Lady Tilney, the Comtesse Leinsengen and others of that _élite_ body.