"La, what does it signify," rejoined Lady Ellersby; "nobody thinks of any thing above a very few days, and except some dear friend or other, no person of good breeding mentions the subject to one, if it be disagreeable, so that I cannot really say it disturbs my tranquillity for a moment, let them say what they will. As to this puff about Lady Adeline Seymour, I agree with Lady Baskerville, there are always a set of would-be fashionables, who pay for the putting in of such paragraphs about themselves, _et l'on sait parfaitement à quoi s'en tenir_ respecting them." "Nevertheless," rejoined Mr. Foley, who had just laid down his book, "I do assure you that, puff or no puff, Lady Adeline Seymour will astonish you all, for she is a very extraordinary person." "Then I am sure I shall not be able to suffer her," said Lady Baskerville. "_Je déteste les phénomènes_," said Comtesse Leinsengen. "Mr. Foley seems to be paid too," rejoined Lady Tenderden, laughing, "for making the young lady notorious; and we shall see him with a placard stuck on his shoulders, setting forth the beauties and perfections of the wonderful young lady." "These _miracles_," cried Comtesse Leinsengen, "are only fit to be shewn for half-a-crown a piece; if you interest yourself very much in her benefit, remember, I promise to take tickets." Mr. Foley smiled as, he replied: "I shall leave it to time to prove to every one of you how very much you are mistaken." "By all that is romantic," cried Mr. Winyard, "Foley is caught at last; he is positively going to become a lackadaisical swain, and write sonnets to his mistress's eyebrows." "Perhaps even so. It is amusing to take up a new character now and then; it is like changing the air, and is equally beneficial to the health, moral and physical. Nothing so fatiguing as being always the same, both for the sake of one's-self, as well as of our associates--don't you think so, Mr. Winyard?"