Chinese pagoda, the lady paused, with her foot on the threshold, as
if afraid to enter this porcelain Elysium, as she called it--Fool's
Paradise, she would have said; and, by her hesitation, and by the
half pronounced word, suggested the idea,--"None but belles without
petticoats can enter here," said she, drawing her clothes tight round
her; "fortunately, I have but two, and Lady Langdale has but one."
Prevailed upon to venture in, she walked on with prodigious care and
trepidation, affecting to be alarmed at the crowd of strange forms and
monsters by which she was surrounded.

"Not a creature here that I ever saw before in nature!--Well, now I
may boast I've been in a real Chinese pagoda!"

"Why, yes, every thing is appropriate here, I flatter my self," said
Lady Clonbrony.

"And how good of you, my dear Lady Clonbrony, in defiance of bulls
and blunders, to allow us a comfortable English fire-place and plenty
of Newcastle coal in China!--And a white marble--no! white velvet
hearthrug painted with beautiful flowers--Oh! the delicate, the
_useful_ thing!"

Vexed by the emphasis on the word _useful_, Lady Clonbrony endeavoured
to turn off the attention of the company. "Lady Langdale, your
ladyship's a judge of china--this vase is an unique, I am told."

"I am told," interrupted Mrs. Dareville, "this is the very vase in
which B----, the nabob's father, who was, you know, a China captain,
smuggled his dear little Chinese wife and all her fortune out of
Canton--positively, actually put the lid on, packed her up, and sent