his discomfiture. It does not
appear that Hiram, after finishing his education with Signor Alberto,
attempted to continue his acquaintance with his partner in the waltz.
Once during the course he did ask the young lady where she lived, and
intimated that he would be pleased to call and see her; but the
observation was received with such evident signs of dissatisfaction,
that he never renewed the subject, and it is doubtful if he ever
explained to himself satisfactorily his failure to get in the good
graces of such a handsome girl and so perfect a waltzer.

CHAPTER X.

The Rev. Augustus Myrtle, rector of St. Jude's, was one of those
circumstances of nature which are only to be encountered in metropolitan
life. This seems a paradox. I will explain. All his qualities were born
with him, not acquired, and those qualities could only shine in the
aristocratic and fashionable circles of a large city. As animals by
instinct avoid whatever is noxious and hurtful, so Augustus Myrtle from
his infancy by instinct avoided all poor people and all persons not in
the 'very first society.'

Children are naturally democrats; school is a great leveller. Augustus
Myrtle recognized no such propositions. While a boy at the academy,
while a youth in college, he sought the intimacy of boys and youths of
rich persons of _ton_. It was not enough that a young fellow was well
bred and had a good social position--he must be rich. It was not enough
that he was rich--he must have position.

I do not think that Augustus Myrtle sat down carefully to calculate all
this. So I say it was instinctive--born with him. A person who frequents
only the society of the well bred and the wealthy must, to a degree at
least, possess refined and elegant and expensive tastes, and it was so
in the case of Myrtle. His tastes were refined and elegant and
expensive.

His parents were themselves people of respectability, but very poor. His
mother used to say that her son's decided predilections were in
consequence of her unfortunate state of mind the season Augustus was
born, when poverty pinched the family sharply. Mr. Myrtle was a man of
collegiate education, with an excellent mind, but totally unfitted for
active life. The result was, after marrying a poor girl, who was,
however, of the 'aristocracy,' he became, through the influence of her
friends, the librarian of the principal library in a neighboring city,
with a fair salary, on which, with occasional