t
her mind was made up, at any cost and every risk, to live down the
slander by utter contempt of it Linton asked for no more. "Let
her," said he to himself, "but enter the lists with the world for an
adversary! I 'll give her all the benefits of the best motives,--as much
purity of heart, and so forth, as she cares for; but, 'I 'll name the
winner,' after all."

Too true. The worthy people who fancy that an innate honesty of purpose
can compensate for all the breaches of conventional use, are like the
volunteers of an army who refuse to wear its uniform, and are as often
picked down by their allies as by their enemies.

CHAPTER III. A PARTIAL RECOVERY AND A RELAPSE

Such a concourse ne'er was seen
Of coaches, noddies, cars, and jingles,
"Chars-a-bancs," to hold sixteen,
And "sulkies," meant to carry singles.

The Pic-nic: A Lay.

It is an old remark that nothing is so stupid as love-letters; and,
pretty much in the same spirit, we may affirm that there are few
duller topics than festivities. The scenes in which the actor is most
interested are, out of compensation, perhaps, those least worthy
to record; the very inability of description to render them is
disheartening too. One must eternally resort to the effects produced, as
evidences of the cause, just as, when we would characterize a climate,
we find ourselves obliged to fall back upon the vegetable productions,
the fruits and flowers of the seasons, to convey even anything of what
we desire. So is it Pleasure has its own atmosphere,--we may breathe,
but hardly chronicle it.

These prosings of ours have reference to the gayeties of Tubbermore,
which certainly were all that a merry party and an unbounded expenditure
could compass. The style of living was princely in its splendor;
luxuries fetched from every land,--the rarest wines of every country,
the most exquisite flowers,--all that taste can suggest, and gold can
buy, were there; and while the order of each day was maintained with
undiminished splendor, every little fancy of the guests was studied with
a watchful politeness that marks the highest delicacy of hospitality.

If a bachelor's house be wanting in the gracefulness which is the charm
of a family reception, there is a freedom, a degree of liberty in
all the movements of the guests, which some would accept as a fair
compromise; for, while the men assume a full equality With their host,
the ladies are supreme in al