The majority of the guests were like the plate, and included several heavy articles weighing ever so much. But there was a foreign gentleman among them: whom Mr. Podsnap had invited after much debate with himself⁠—believing the whole European continent to be in mortal alliance against the young person⁠—and there was a droll disposition, not only on the part of Mr. Podsnap but of everybody else, to treat him as if he were a child who was hard of hearing.

As a delicate concession to this unfortunately-born foreigner, Mr. Podsnap, in receiving him, had presented his wife as “Madame Podsnap;” also his daughter as “Mademoiselle Podsnap,” with some inclination to add “ma fille,” in which bold venture, however, he checked himself. The Veneerings being at that time the only other arrivals, he had added (in a condescendingly explanatory manner), “Monsieur Vey-nair-reeng,” and had then subsided into English.