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26 was devoted to a drive, if fair,—if wet, to wondering whether it would clear. Dressing came next,—a mere mechanical adjustment of certain rich silks and handsome jewels, where vanity was as much out of the question, as if its own peculiar domain had not been a looking-glass: with no one to attract, and, still dearer hope, no one to surpass, cui bono? for, after all, vanity is like those chemical essences whose only existence is when called into being by the action of some opposite influence.

During dinner the Earl lamented the inevitable ruin to which the country was hastening; and, after grace had been said, the Countess agreed with him, moreover observing, that dress alone was destroying the distinction of ranks, and that at church silks were commoner than stuffs. Here the conversation ceased, and they returned to the drawing-room; the Countess to sleep—Lady Alicia to cut out more paper landscapes.

Twice a-year there was a great dinner, to which she was regularly handed down by the old Marquess of Snowdon, who duly impressed upon her mind how very cold it was; and, in truth, he looked like an embodied shiver.