hetherington house stands in beaufort square, forming one side of that confessedly aristocratic quarter. the house stands back in melancholy "grounds" of dirty gravel, brown turf, and smutted trees, while the dwarf wall which forms the side of the square, and is indeed a sufficiently huge brick screen, fences off the commonalty, and prevents them from ever catching so much as a glimpse of the paradise within, save when the great gates are flung open for the entrance or exit of vehicles, or when the porter, so gorgeous and yet so simple, is sunning himself in the calm evening air at the small postern-door. the countess of hetherington likes this brick screen, and looks upon it as a necessary appanage of her rank. when visitors, having exhausted every topic of conversation possible to their great minds--a feat which is easily performed in the space of five minutes--and, beginning to fear the immediate advent of brain-softening if not of idiotcy, suddenly become possessed with a fresh idea after a lengthened contemplation of the wall in front of them, and with an air of desperation ask whether it does not make the house dull, lady hetherington says that, on the contrary, it is the only thing that renders the house habitable. she confesses that, during the time she is compelled to be in london, the sight of hack cabs, and policemen on their beat, and those kind of things, are not absolutely necessary to her existence, and as sir charles dumfunk insists on her rooms facing the west, she is glad that the wall is there to act as a screen. oh yes, she is perfectly aware that lord letterkenney had the screen of purcell house pulled down and an open italian façade erected in its place, the picture of which was in the illustrated papers; but as lady letterkenney until her marriage had lived in ireland, and had probably never seen anything human except priests and pigs, the sight of civilised beings was doubtless an agreeable novelty to her. the same circumstances did not exist in her, lady hetherington's, case, and she decidedly liked the screen.
