ry of the same style of conversation.
I always think I must be a most uninteresting partner when I am asked
what theatres I have been to lately, or what is my opinion of the
Academy, &c., &c. I never begin this kind of talk myself except as a
last resource, when I can get nothing else out of a man. Someone says,
I forget who, that "a woman can always know in what opinion she is
held by the conversation addressed to her," and is it not true? The
foolish compliments paid to the pretty, but silly little _debutante_;
the small talk to the fools; the sparring with the witty; the _risque_
tales enjoyed by those of a more rapid style. Men find out first what
are our tastes, and then dish up their conversation accordingly, and
they do not often make mistakes.

Some girls dance with one man the whole evening. How weary they must
get of each other! Engaged people invariably pass the evening
together, and sometimes do not dance at all, but sit out in some
secluded corner. They have to endure one another for years to come, I
wonder they do not get as much variety as possible now. At any rate,
they might just as well stop at home.

Like everything else, dancing is hurrying along, and growing faster
every year. The _deux-temps_, they say is coming back. May the day be
far ahead when that step reigns once more! Perhaps before then I shall
be converted into a chaperone, and shall sit watching others dance,
not being able to do so myself; or, perhaps worse, not being _asked_
myself. I am afraid I should not make a nice chaperone. I should look
very cross, and should hurry away as early as possible. Ah, sad indeed
will the day be when I give up dancing, when only the remembrance of
my past enjoyments will be brought back to me through the scent of
gardenias and tube-roses, dear dissipated-smelling flowers!

CHAPTER XII.

ON WATERING PLACES.

What a great deal of trouble and time it takes to choose a
watering-place! And yet there are many and various kinds of resorts,
some for one season, some for another.

If you could be carried sufficiently high above the earth so as to
have a bird's-eye view of the whole of Great Britain, what a strange
sight it would present during the months of August and September! The
county would appear surrounded with a human fringe, the outer edge
more resembling a disturbed ants' hill than anything else. I don't
suppose we should appear more significant than ants at that distance.

There are t