ed, like the
unicorn. I ought to have recollected, that under the close inspection
of two such watchful salvages, our communication, while in repose, could
not have been easy; that the period of dancing a minuet was not the very
choicest time for conversation; but that the noise, the exercise,
and the mazy confusion of a country-dance, where the inexperienced
performers were every now and then running against each other, and
compelling the other couples to stand still for a minute at a time,
besides the more regular repose afforded by the intervals of the dance
itself, gave the best possible openings for a word or two spoken in
season, and without being liable to observation.

We had but just led down, when an opportunity of the kind occurred, and
my partner said, with great gentleness and modesty, 'It is not perhaps
very proper in me to acknowledge an acquaintance that is not claimed;
but I believe I speak to Mr. Darsie Latimer?'

'Darsie Latimer was indeed the person that had now the honour and
happiness'--

I would have gone on in the false gallop of compliment, but she cut me
short. 'And why,' she said, 'is Mr. Latimer here, and in disguise, or at
least assuming an office unworthy of a man of education?--I beg pardon,'
she continued,--'I would not give you pain, but surely making, an
associate of a person of that description'--

She looked towards my friend Willie, and was silent. I felt heartily
ashamed of myself, and hastened to say it was an idle frolic, which want
of occupation had suggested, and which I could not regret, since it had
procured me the pleasure I at present enjoyed.

Without seeming to notice my compliment, she took the next opportunity
to say, 'Will Mr. Latimer permit a stranger who wishes him well to ask,
whether it is right that, at his active age, he should be in so far void
of occupation, as to be ready to adopt low society for the sake of idle
amusement?'

'You are severe, madam,' I answered; 'but I cannot think myself degraded
by mixing with any society where I meet'--

Here I stopped short, conscious that I was giving my answer an
unhandsome turn. The ARGUMENTUM AD HOMINEM, the last to which a polite
man has recourse, may, however, be justified by circumstances, but
seldom or never the ARGUMENTUM AD FOEMINAM.

She filled up the blank herself which I had left. 'Where you meet ME, I
suppose you would say? But the case is different. I am, from my unhappy
fate, obliged to move by the