The Lady of the Manor (Volume 5); Being a Series of Conversations on the Subject of Confirmation (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1831 Excerpt: ... opportunity of humbling, by the relation of this extraordinary circumstance, the family at whose cost they were entertained; yet most of the party had sufficient politeness, or we should rather say self-love, to wish that the disagreeable tale might come through the medium of another. There was, however, one person present whose feelings were an exception to this general sentiment by which the rest were pervaded, namely, Mrs. Smith, who was very glad that the tale had not yet reached Stanbrook Court, and that none of the present company chose to take upon themselves the office of informer, because she coveted it for herself, and was waiting only until she might be able to do it with most effect. This lady had long disliked the Vaughen family, because they possessed that in which she was deficient, namely, a respectable pedigree, and she particularly hated the two single sisters of the Squire, because they had once or twice contrived to utter in her presence certain sly inuendoes upon this tender point. Mrs. Smith had heard of the new epergne; for she was one of those ladies who condescend to receive their information from the lowest source, and, consequently this important circumstance, which was intended to have occasioned a surprise to the company, was no longer a secret to this lady, and she had maliciously resolved to wait the moment, of the appearance of this piece of splendour, to open her tale so abundant in considerations deeply humbling to a worldly mind. Accordingly, when the servants had successfully fixed the sparkling pyramid upon the table, she turned to Miss Vaughen, near whom she sat, at the head of the table, and said how afflicted she was to hear of Mr. Henry Vaughen's heavy loss. On this, the attention of every individual of the family pr...