Then Marsham quoted a speech in the Indian Council.
Diana dismissed it with contempt, as the shaft of a _frondeur_ discredited by both parties.

He fell back on Blue Books, and other ponderosities--Barton by this time silent, or playing a clumsy chorus.
But if Diana was not acquainted with these things in the ore, so to speak, she was more than a little acquainted with the missiles that could be forged from them.

That very afternoon Hugh Roughsedge had pointed her to some of the best.

She took them up--a little wildly now--for her coolness was departing--and for a time Marsham could hardly keep his footing.
A good many listeners were by now gathered round the disputants.

Lady Niton, wielding some noisy knitting needles by the fireside, was enjoying the fray all the more that it seemed to be telling against Oliver.