I know Lady Laura so well; she will be trying to
plant all those rich manufacturing fellows upon you; she has quite a mania
for that sort of people."
The Captain made himself very pleasant all through that long ceremonial of
dinner. If the brilliant things which he said were not quite the newest in
the world, they were at least new to Clarissa, who rewarded his efforts to
please her by seeming very much amused, and flattered, and stimulated him
to new flights by her appreciation. He told her all about the people round
her, making her feel less like a stranger in a foreign country; and that
pageant-like dinner, long as it was, did not seem at all too long to be
pleasant.
After dinner there was a little music and singing at one end of the
drawing-room, to which people listened or not, as they pleased; a
friendly whist-table established at the other end, at which four elderly,
grey-whiskered, and bald-headed country gentlemen played gravely for an
hour or so; and a good deal of desultory strolling out through the open
windows to the terrace for the contemplation of the moonlit gardens, with
perhaps a spice of flirtation. Lady Laura was never quite happy unless she
saw something like flirtation going on among her younger visitors. She was
pleased to see Captain Westleigh's attention to Clarissa, though she would
rather that James Halkin had occupied the ground. But, alas! Mr.
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