onopolizing all the journals they could find, began fairly with
the heroic resolution to skip nothing, from the first advertisement to
the printer's name. Amidst one of these groups Mainwaring had bashfully
ensconced himself. In the farther division, the chandelier, suspended
from the domed ceiling, threw its cheerful light over a large circular
table below, on which gleamed the ponderous tea-urn of massive silver,
with its usual accompaniments. Nor were wanting there, in addition to
those airy nothings, sliced infinitesimally, from a French roll,
the more substantial and now exiled cheer of cakes,--plum and seed,
Yorkshire and saffron,--attesting the light hand of the housekeeper and
the strong digestion of the guests. Round this table were seated, in
full gossip, the maids and the matrons, with a slight sprinkling of
the bolder young gentlemen who had been taught to please the fair. The
warmth of the evening allowed the upper casement to be opened and the
curtains drawn aside, and the July moonlight feebly struggled against
the blaze of the lights within. At this table it was Miss Clavering's
obvious duty to preside; but that was a complaisance to which she rarely
condescended. Nevertheless, she had her own way of doing the honour of
her uncle's house, which was not without courtesy and grace; to glide
from one to the other, exchange a few friendly words, see that each
set had its well-known amusements, and, finally, sit quietly down to
converse with some who, from gravity or age, appeared most to neglect
or be neglected by the rest, was her ordinary, and not unpopular mode of
welcoming the guests at Laughton,--not unpopular; for she thus avoided
all interference with the flirtations and conquests of humbler damsels,
whom her station and her endowments might otherwise have crossed or
humbled, while she insured the good word of the old, to whom the young
are seldom so attentive. But if a stranger of more than provincial
repute chanced to be present; if some stray member of parliament, or
barrister on the circuit, or wandering artist, accompanied any of the
neighbours,--to him Lucretia gave more earnest and undivided attention.
Him she sought to draw into a conversation deeper than the usual babble,
and with her calm, searching eyes, bent on him while he spoke, seemed to
fathom the intellect she set in play. But as yet, this evening, she had
not made her appearance,--a sin against etiquette very unusual in her.
Perhaps he