REV. DR. FOLLIOTT. More,--beautiful. A subject for the pen of
Nonnus or the pencil of Zeuxis. Features of all loveliness,
radiant with all virtue and intelligence. A face for Antigone. A
form at once plump and symmetrical, that, if it be decorous to
divine it by externals, would have been a model for the Venus of
Cnidos. Never was anything so goodly to look on, the present
company excepted; and poor dear Mrs. Folliott. She reads moral
philosophy, Mr. Mac Quedy, which indeed she might as well let
alone; she reads Italian poetry, Mr. Skionar; she sings Italian
music, Mr. Trillo; but, with all this, she has the greatest of
female virtues, for she superintends the household and looks after
her husband's dinner. I believe she was a mountaineer: [Greek
text] {1} as Nonnus sweetly sings.



CHAPTER XVIII: CHAINMAIL HALL



Vous autres dictes que ignorance est mere de tous maulx, et dictes
vray: mais toutesfoys vous ne la bannissez mye de vos entendemens,
et vivez en elle, avecques elle, et par elle. C'est pourquoy tant
de maulx vous meshaignent de jour en jour.--RABELIAS, 1. 5. c. 7.

The party which was assembled on Christmas Day in Chainmail Hall
comprised all the guests of Crotchet Castle, some of Mr.
Chainmail's other neighbours, all his tenants and domestics, and
Captain Fitzchrome. The hall was spacious and lofty; and with its