Coningsby or the New Generation

The knowledge that Sidonia was in Paris greatly agitated Lady Monmouth. / She received the intimation indeed from Coningsby at dinner with / sufficient art to conceal her emotion. Lord Monmouth himself was quite / pleased at the announcement. Sidonia was his especial favourite; he knew / so much, had such an excellent judgment, and was so rich. He had always / something to tell you, was the best man in the world to bet on, and / never wanted anything. A perfect character according to the Monmouth / ethics.

In the evening of the day that Coningsby met Sidonia, Lady Monmouth made / a little visit to the charming Duchess de Gt who was ‘at home' / every other night in her pretty hotel, with its embroidered white satin / draperies, its fine old cabinets, and ancestral portraits of famous / name, brave marshals and bright princesses of the olden time, on its / walls. These receptions without form, yet full of elegance, are what / English ‘at homes' were before the Continental war, though now, by a / curious perversion of terms, the easy domestic title distinguishes in / England a formally-prepared and elaborately-collected assembly, in which / everything and every person are careful to be as little ‘homely' as / possible. In France, on the contrary, ‘tis on these occasions, and in / this manner, that society carries on that degree and kind of intercourse / which in England we attempt awkwardly to maintain by the medium of / that unpopular species of visitation styled a morning call; which all / complain that they have either to make or to endure.