Of this, happily, there was little fear, Miss Gascoigne being too much
absorbed in her own appearance, which really was very fine. Her black
satin rustled, her black lace fell airily, and her whole figure was that of
a handsome, well-preserved, middle-aged gentlewoman. So pleased
was she with herself that she was pleasant to every one else; and when,
half an hour after, Dr. Grey entered the reception-rooms of St. Mary's
Lodge with his wife on one arm and his sister on the other, any
spectator would have said, how very nice they all looked; what a
fortunate man he was, and what a happy family must be the family at
Saint Bede's.

And, to her own surprise, when her first bewilderment was over,
Christian really did feel happy. Her artistic temperament rejoiced in
the mere beauty of the scene before her--a scene to be found nowhere
out of Avonsbridge--lofty, grand old rooms, resplendent with
innumerable wax-lights; filled, but not too full, with an ever-moving,
gorgeously-colored crowd. Quite different from that of ordinary
soirées, where the coup d'oeil is that of a bed of variegated flowers,
with a tribe of black emmets posed on their hind legs inserted between.
Here the gentlemen made as goodly a show as the ladies, or more so,
many of them being in such picturesque costumes that they might have
just stepped down from the old pictures which covered the walls. In-
numerable flowing gowns, of all shapes and colors, marked the college
dons; then there were the gayly-clad gentlemen commoners, and two or
three young noblemen, equally fine; while, painfully near the door, a
few meek-looking undergraduates struggled under the high honor of the
vice chancellor's hospitality.

As to the women, few were young, and none particularly lovely yet