The London Visitor

A reluctant caller leaves her Berkshire garden for dinner with the Dunbars and encounters a visitor polished in every detail. Mr. Thompson has fashionable clothes, impressive jewellery and opinions ready for almost every guest. He talks of London addresses, wines, music, poetry and politics, while an embarrassing fishing incident gives his hosts another measure of the man. The narrator begins by confessing her own social failings, making her scrutiny of other people's manners part of the comedy.

Set in 1836, Mary Russell Mitford's short story turns country hospitality into an occasion for observing vanity and social judgement. A subsequent visit to Lady Margaret Gore brings the narrator face to face with the same London acquaintance and deepens her puzzlement. Readers interested in everyday nineteenth-century life will find dinner conversation, family performances and the small signals by which people claim distinction, all filtered through an amused, conversational voice.