United States or Lebanon ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"Yes, mamma: there'll be a house-full of young ladies there's the Fitzgeralds and Lady Louisa Pratt and Miss Ellison and the three O'Joscelyns and not a single young man, except Mr O'Joscelyn's curate!" "Well, my dear, I'm sure Mr. Hill's a very nice young man." "So he is, mamma; a very good young man; but he won't do to amuse such a quantity of girls.
We're to have a dinner-party this day week that'll be Thursday; and we'll get as many of the people as we can to stay afterwards; and we'll get the O'Joscelyns to come on Wednesday, just to make the table look not quite so bare, and I want you to write the notes at once. There'll be a great many things to be got from Dublin too."
"Dear me," exclaimed her ladyship; "I wish we'd got this letter yesterday; no one knows now, beforehand, when people are coming. I'm sure it usen't to be so. I shall be so glad to see Lord Ballindine; you know, Fanny, he was always a great favourite of mine. Do you think, Selina, the O'Joscelyns would mind coming again without any notice?
"Gracious heavens! Does Lady Cashel really expect Mat Tierney to play la grace with the Miss O'Joscelyns? Well, the time will come to an end, I suppose. But in truth I'm more sorry for you than for any one. It was very ill-judged, their getting such a crowd to bore you at such a time," and Lord Kilcullen contrived to give his voice a tone of tender solicitude.
"Whither have you taken yourself all the day, rather, that you had not a moment to come and look after us? The Miss O'Joscelyns have been expecting you to ride with them, walk with them, talk with them, and play la grace with them. They didn't give up the sticks till it was quite dark, in the hope of you and Mr Tierney making your appearance."
Little did either of them think that she, Fanny Wyndham, was the sole cause of all the trouble which the household and neighbourhood were to undergo: the fatigue of the countess; Griffiths's journey; the arrival of the dread man cook; Richards's indignation at being made subordinate to such authority; the bishop's desertion of the Education Board; the colonel's dangerous and precipitate consumption of colchicum; the quarrel between Lord and Lady George as to staying or not staying; the new dresses of the Miss O'Joscelyns, which their worthy father could so ill afford; and, above all, the confusion, misery, rage, and astonishment which attended Lord Kilcullen's unexpected retreat from London, in the middle of the summer.
So were the bishop, and the colonel, and Lord George, and their respective wives, and Mr Hill. My dear mamma asked them all here for my amusement; but, you know, one man may lead a horse to water a hundred can't make him drink. I cannot, cannot drink of the Miss O'Joscelyns, and the Bishop of Maryborough." "For shame, Adolphus! you ought at any rate to do something to amuse them." "Amuse them!
"Well, Fanny, don't tell my mother, and I'll tell you the truth: promise now." "Oh, I'm no tell-tale." "Well then," and he whispered into her ear "I was running away from the Miss O'Joscelyns." "But that won't do at all; don't you know they were asked here for your especial edification and amusement?" "Oh, I know they were.
The countess groaned and sighed "There's the list there, Selina, which your father put down in pencil. You know the people as well as I do: just ask them all " "But, mamma, I'm not to ask them all to stay here: I suppose some are only to come to dinner? the O'Joscelyns, and the Parchments?" "Ask the O'Joscelyns for Wednesday and Thursday: the girls might as well stay and sleep here.
"It's very soon after poor Harry Wyndham's death, to be receiving company," said Lady Selina, solemnly. "Really, mamma, I don't think it will be treating Fanny well to be asking all these people so soon. The O'Joscelyns, or the Fitzgeralds, are all very well just our own near neighbours; but don't you think, mamma, it's rather too soon to be asking a house-full of strange people?"
Word Of The Day