The visage of the secretary bird is falconish in the extreme ; if possible, more so than that of the actual bird it is compared to.

our mixed companies here, which, if they happen to rise above bragg and whist, infallibly stop short of every thing either pleasing or instructive

She unpacked her laptop and then set to work, looking up business services, cleaners and dejunkers to come by and start working on the house. That part was easy. A company she contacted in nearby Yakima did industrial cleaning.

[I]t seems a pity that they should not form a volume in one of the neat series of Jane Austen's novels now published, as to a real Austenite they contain much that is valuable, and are full of characteristic touches.