Her indifferent state of health unhappily prevents her being in town; and by that means, as I told Lady Catherine one day, has deprived the British court of its brightest ornament.
– Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 14. Mr. Collins never passes up an opportunity to praise his patroness Lady Catherine de Bourgh. During his visit to the Bennets he uses a metaphor to compare Lady Catherine’s sickly daughter Anne to a beautiful ornament.