"I am, then, to imagine, that the highest style of fashion is, like that of ancient art, the beauty of repose? You account for the indifference of the gentlemen—how do you account for the gravity of the young ladies?"
"You speak as if you considered a ball a matter of pleasure, not business! Do you imagine a girl goes through her first season in London, with the view of amusing herself? Heavens! she has no time to waste in any such folly. The first campaign is conquest and hope—the second, conquest and fear—the third, conquest and despair. A ball-room is merely—'Arithmetic and the use of figures taught here.' A young lady in a quadrille might answer, like a merchant in his counting-house, 'I am too busy to laugh—I am making my calculations.'"
"La nation boutiquière," laughed Emily.
"Ah, good!" exclaimed Lorraine. "Do look how sedulously those two young ladies have made room for that thin, bilious-looking, elderly gentleman, to hear more conveniently Malibran's last song."
"He sat by me at dinner the other day. Do you know, I am quite interested in him—I pity his situation so much! The conversation
