'Miss Nugent, I am afraid we have made Miss Broadhurst talk so much, in
spite of her hoarseness, that Lady Clonbrony will be quite angry with
us. And here she comes!'

My Lady Clonbrony came to hope, to beg, that Miss Broadhurst would not
think of running away; but Miss Broadhurst could not be prevailed upon
to stay. Lady Clonbrony was delighted to see that her son assisted
Grace Nugent most carefully in SHAWLING Miss Broadhurst; his lordship
conducted her to her carriage, and his mother drew many happy auguries
from the gallantry of his manner, and from the young lady's having
stayed three-quarters, instead of half an hour--a circumstance which
Lady Catharine did not fail to remark.

The dancing, which, under various pretences, Lady Clonbrony had
delayed till Lord Colambre was at liberty, began immediately after Miss
Broadhurst's departure; and the chalked mosaic pavement of the Alhambra
was, in a few minutes, effaced by the dancers' feet. How transient are
all human joys, especially those of vanity! Even on this long meditated,
this long desired, this gala night, Lady Clonbrony found her triumph
incomplete--inadequate to her expectations. For the first hour all had
been compliment, success, and smiles; presently came the BUTS, and the
hesitated objections, and the 'damning with faint praise.' All THAT
could be borne. Everybody has his taste--and one person's taste is as
good as another's; and while she had Mr. Soho to cite, Lady Clonbrony
thought she might be well satisfied. But she could not be satisfied with
Colonel Heathcock, who, dressed in black, had stretched his 'fashionable
length of limb' under the statira canopy upon the snow-white swan-down
couch. When, after having monopolised attention, and been the subject
of much bad wit, about black swans and rare birds, and swans being geese
and geese being swans, the colonel condescended to rise, and, as Mrs.