as CAST hangings, and every tongue was busy declaiming against Mr. Soho;
everybody declared that, from the first, the want of proportion had
'struck them, but that they would not mention it till others found it
out.'

People usually revenge themselves for having admired too much, by
afterwards despising and depreciating without mercy--in all great
assemblies the perception of ridicule is quickly caught, and quickly
too revealed. Lady Clonbrony, even in her own house, on her gala
night, became an object of ridicule--decently masked, indeed, under the
appearance of condolence with her ladyship, and of indignation against
'that abominable Mr. Soho!'

Lady Langdale, who was now, for reasons of her own, upon her good
behaviour, did penance, as she said, for her former imprudence, by
abstaining even from whispered sarcasms. She looked on with penitential
gravity, said nothing herself, and endeavoured to keep Mrs. Dareville in
order; but that was no easy task. Mrs. Dareville had no daughters,
had nothing to gain from the acquaintance of my Lady Clonbrony; and,
conscious that her ladyship would bear a vast deal from her presence,
rather than forego the honour of her sanction, Mrs. Dareville, without
any motives of interest, or good-nature of sufficient power to restrain
her talent and habit of ridicule, free from hope or fear, gave full
scope to all the malice of mockery, and all the insolence of fashion.
Her slings and arrows, numerous as they were and outrageous, were
directed against such petty objects, and the mischief was so quick,
in its aim and its operation, that, felt but not seen, it is scarcely
possible to register the hits, or to describe the nature of the wounds.

Some hits sufficiently palpable, however, were recorded for the