"Are there ladies at the Leas?"
"There are Mrs. Eshton and her three daughters -- very elegant young
ladies indeed; and there are the Honourable Blanche and Mary Ingram,
most beautiful women, I suppose: indeed I have seen Blanche, six
or seven years since, when she was a girl of eighteen. She came
here to a Christmas ball and party Mr. Rochester gave. You should
have seen the dining-room that day -- how richly it was decorated,
how brilliantly lit up! I should think there were fifty ladies
and gentlemen present -- all of the first county families; and Miss
Ingram was considered the belle of the evening."
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