is like time and tide—he stays for no man—nor woman neither."
A heavy, plain man took the lady away, very much as if she had been a parcel; and Emily could well believe he had written pamphlets on the currency and the corn-laws. He looked like a personification of the dryness of the one, and the dulness of the other.
Mrs. Smithson had by this time pretty well distributed her stock of conciliation and courtesy, and now recollected the existence of her sweet young friend. Divers introductions took place; and Emily heard a great deal of conversation, of which conceit was the canvass, while Flattery laid on the colours. Dry biscuits and drier sandwiches were handed round; and about twelve, Emily found herself in her own room, very tired, very dissatisfied, and very hungry. She had seen many who had long been the throned idols of her imagination, and her disappointment much resembled that of the princely lover of Cinderella, who, on questioning his porters if they had seen a robed and radiant beauty pass, learnt that their uncharmed eyes had only beheld a little dirty girl. She had fallen into the common error of supposing that the author must personify his works, and
