A very little lady of seventeen, Miss Adeline Gosling, trembling with shyness under a cover of demureness, fell to Edward's lot to conduct down to dinner, where he neglected her disgracefully.
His father, Sir William, was present at the table, and Lord Elling, with whom he was in repute as a talker and a wit.

Quickened with his host's renowned good wine (and the bare renown of a wine is inspiriting), Edward pressed to be brilliant.

He had an epigrammatic turn, and though his mind was prosaic when it ran alone, he could appear inventive and fanciful with the rub of other minds.

Now, at a table where good talking is cared for, the triumphs of the excelling tongue are not for a moment to be despised, even by the huge appetite of the monster Vanity.

For a year, Edward had abjured this feast.