“Our hostess, now so grave and steady grown, 50
Has had some awkward trials of her own.
She was not always so resign’d and meek—
Yet can I little of her failings speak;
Those she herself will her misfortunes deem,
And slides discreetly from the dubious theme.
But you shall hear the tale that I will tell,
When we have seen the mansion where they dwell.”
They saw the mansion,—and the couple made
Obeisance due, and not without parade: