With all her perfections on her head, my Lady Dedlock has come up from her place in Lincolnshire (hotly pursued by the fashionable intelligence) to pass a few days at her house in town previous to her departure for Paris, where her ladyship intends to stay some weeks, after which her movements are uncertain. And at her house in town, upon this muddy, murky afternoon, presents himself an old-fashioned old gentleman, attorney-at-law and eke solicitor of the High Court of Chancery, who has the honour of acting as legal adviser of the Dedlocks and has as many cast-iron boxes in his office with that name outside as if the present baronet were the coin of the conjuror's trick and were constantly being juggled through the whole set. Across the hall, and up the stairs, and along the passages, and through the rooms, which are very brilliant in the season and very dismal out of it--fairy-land to visit, but a desert to live in--the old gentleman is conducted by a Mercury in powder to my Lady's presence.

My Lady Dedlock has come up from her place in Lincolnshire to pass a few days at her house in town before departing to Paris for some weeks, after which her movements are uncertain. And at her house in town, upon this murky afternoon, arrives an old-fashioned old gentleman, solicitor of the High Court of Chancery, who is legal adviser of the Dedlocks. Across the hall, and up the stairs, and through the rooms, which are very brilliant in the season and very dismal out of it - fairy-land to visit, but a desert to live in - the old gentleman is conducted into my Lady's presence.
