'
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, everything is appropriate here, I flatter myself,' said Lady
Clonbrony.
'And how good of you, my dear Lady Clonbrony, in defiance of bulls and
blunders, to allow us a comfortable English fireplace 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
her off on shipboard!--True! true! upon my veracity! I'll tell you my
authority!'
With this story Mrs.
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