bbed his
hands and called for champagne with the tone of a younger brother.
Temperance soon grew scandalized, and Modesty herself coloured at some
of the jokes; but Hospitality, who was now half seas over, called the
one a milksop, and swore at the other as a prude. Away went the hours;
it was time to return, and they made down to the water-side, thoroughly
out of temper with one another, Economy and Generosity quarrelling all
the way about the bill and the waiters. To make up the sum of their
mortification, they passed a boat where all the company were in the best
possible spirits, laughing and whooping like mad; and discovered
these jolly companions to be two or three agreeable Vices, who had put
themselves under the management of Good Temper.

"So you see, Gertrude, that even the Virtues may fall at loggerheads
with each other, and pass a very sad time of it, if they happen to be
of opposite dispositions, and have forgotten to take Good Temper with
them."

"Ah," said Gertrude, "but you have overloaded your boat; too many
Virtues might contradict one another, but not a few."

"Voila ce que veux dire," said Vane; "but listen to the sequel of my
tale, which now takes a new moral."

At the end of the voyage, and after a long, sulky silence, Prudence
said, with a thoughtful air, "My dear friends, I have been thinking that
as long as we keep so entirely together, never mixing with the rest of
the world, we shall waste our lives in quarrelling amongst ourselves and
run the risk of being still less liked and sought after than we already
are. You know that we are none of us popular; every one is quite
contented to see us represented in a vaudeville, or described in an
essay. Charity, indeed, has her name often taken in vain at a bazaar
or a subscription; and the miser as often talks of the duty he owes to
_me_, when he sends the stranger from his door or his grandson to jail:
but still we only resemble so many wild beasts, whom everybody likes
to see but nobody cares to possess. Now, I propose that we should all
separate and take up our abode with some mortal or other for a year,
with the power of changing at the end of that time should we not feel
ourselves comfortable,--that is, should we not find that we do all the
good we intend; let us try the experiment, and on this day twelvemonths
let us all meet under the largest oak in Windsor Forest, and recount
what has befallen us." Prudence ceased, as she always does when sh