upon their credit—wits who once said, or, peradventure, repeated, a clever thing, and have made it last. But it was later than our party had intended to remain—or, whatever of attraction the crowd might yet retain was to them of no avail.
As they were leaving the room, Lady Mandeville entered. She glanced round, and said to Lorraine—"Considering, gentlemen, you had only yourselves to study, it must be owned you have shewn no indiscreet carelessness to your own comfort and convenience."
"We want something," said Lorraine, "to console us for your absence."
"Nay, nay—it is to shew us how well you can do without us," replied Lady Mandeville. "I daily expect, in these times of reform and retrenchment, that a bill will be brought into the House for the suppression of the female sex, as an expensive and useless superfluity."
