Rose, Blanche, and Violet, Volume II by George Henry Lewes

Si modo dignum aliquid elaborare et efficere velint, relinquenda / conversatio amicorum et jucunditas urbis, deserenda cetera officia, / utque ipsi dicunt, in nemora et lucos, id est, in solitudinem / recedendum est. / TACITUS. -- _De Oratoribus._

The splendours of the first day were never renewed. Exhausted munificence sank quietly back into ancient close-fistedness. Mrs. Tring had given one banquet, but every day was not to be a holiday, as Mrs. Merryweather and Miss Bachelor mournfully confessed, when, on the succeeding morning, they found themselves returned to the salt butter, drenched tea, and implacable coffee, from which they had been one morning released. Still more dolorous was the aspect of the dinner. A return was made to the primitive allowance of one potato for each person, and the bread was as stale as before.