George Manville Fenn
"Lady Maude's Mania"
Chapter One.
A High Family.
“Con-found those organs!” said the Earl of Barmouth.
“And frustrate their grinders,” cried Viscount Diphoos.
“They are such a nuisance, my boy.”
“True, oh sire,” replied the viscount, who had the heels of his patent leather shoes on the library chimney-piece of the town mansion in Portland Place. He had reached that spot with difficulty, and was smoking a cigar, to calm his nerves for what he called the operation.