created such a sensation after it was abused in the Trimestrial
Review. It was a little bold certainly - I just looked at it at my club - after
hours devoted to parish duty a clergyman is sometimes allowed, you know,
desipere in loco - there are descriptions in it certainly startling - ideas
about marriage not exactly orthodox; but the poor child wrote the book actually
in the nursery, and all England was ringing with it before Dr. Pinnifer, her
father, knew who was the author. That is the Doctor asleep in the corner by Miss
Rudge, the American authoress, who I dare say is explaining to him the
difference between the two Governments. - My dear Mrs. Newcome, I am giving my
brother-in-law a little sketch of some of the celebrities who are crowding your
salon to-night. What a delightful evening you have given us!«
    »I try to do my best, Colonel Newcome,« said the lady of the house. »I hope
many a night we may see you here; and, as I said this morning, Clive, when he is
of an age to appreciate this kind of entertainment. Fashion I do not worship.
You may meet that amongst other branches of our family; but genius and talent I
do reverence. And if I can be the means - the humble means - to bring men of
genius together - mind to associate with mind - men of all nations to mingle in
friendly unison - I shall not have lived altogether in vain. They call us women
of the world frivolous, Colonel Newcome. So some may be; I do not say there are
not in our own family persons who worship mere worldly rank, and think but of
fashion and gaiety; but such, I trust, will never be the objects in life of me
and my children. We are but merchants; we seek to be no more. If I can look
around me and see as I do« (she waves her fan round, and points to the
illustrations scintillating round the room), »and see as I do now - a Poski,
whose name is ever connected with Polish history - an Ettore, who has exchanged
a tonsure and a rack for our own free country - a Hammerstein and a Quartz, a
Miss Rudge, our Transatlantic sister (who I trust will not mention this modest
salon in her forthcoming work on Europe), and Miss Pinnifer, whose genius I
acknowledge, though I deplore her opinions; if I can gather together travellers,
poets, and painters, princes and distinguished soldiers from the East,