People dined earlier forty years ago than they do now. Even that salt of the earth, the elect ofsociety, represented by that little great world which lies between the narrow circle bounded byBryanstone Square on the north and by Birdcage Walk on the south, did not consider seven o'clocktoo early an hour for a dinner party which was to be followed by routs, drums, concerts, conversazione, as the case might be. It was seven o'clock on a lovely June evening, and the Park wasalready deserted, and carriages were rolling swiftly along all the Westend squares, carrying rank, fashion, wealth, and beauty, political influence, and intellectual power, to the particular circle inwhich each was destined to illumine upon that particular evening.Stateliest among London squares, Grosvenor-in some wise a wonder to the universe as newlylighted with gas-grave Grosvenor, with its heavy old Georgian houses and pompous porticoes, sparkled and shone, not alone with the novel splendour of gas, but with the light of many waxcandles, clustering flower-like in silver branches and girandoles, multiplying their flame in numerousmirrors; and of all the houses in that stately square none had a more imposing aspect than LordDenyer's dark red brick mansion, with stone dressings, and the massive grandeur of an Egyptianmausole