while to one or two damaged peeresses, who were not received by women of
their own rank. But I am told it was curious to see with what adroitness
she could extricate herself from a disreputable acquaintance, when a
more honorable one stepped in to fill the niche. She made her way
rapidly, by insinuating to one person of note how intimate she was with
another, and to both what handsome things each said of the other. By
constant attentions, petty offices, and measured flattery, she has got
footing into almost every house of distinction. Her decorum is
invariable. She boasts that she was never guilty of the indecency of
violent passion. Poor woman! she fancies there is no violent passion but
that of anger. Little does she think that ambition, vanity, the hunger
of applause, a rage for being universally known, are all violent
passion, however modified by discretion or varnished by art. She suffers
too all that "vexation of spirit" which treads on the heels of "vanity."
Disappointment and jealousy poison the days devoted to pleasure. The
party does not answer. The wrong people never stay away, and the right
ones never come. The guest for whom the fete is made is sure to fail.
Her party is thin, while that of her competitor overflows; or there is a
plenty of dowagers and a paucity of young men. When the costly and
elaborate supper is on the table excuses arrive; even if the supper is
crowded, the daughters remain upon hands. How strikingly does she
exemplify the strong expression of--"laboring in the fire for very
vanity"--"of giving her money for that which is not bread, and her labor
for that which satisfieth not!"

After spending the day at Mrs. Fentham's, I went to sup with my friends
in Cavendish-square. Lady Belfield was impatient for my history of the
dinner. But Sir John said, laughing, "You shall not say a word,
Charles--I can tell how it was as exactly as if I had been there.
Charlotte, who has the best voice, was brought out to sing, but was
placed a little behind, as her person is not quite perfect; Maria, who
is the most picturesque figure, was put _to attitudinize_ at the harp,
arrayed in the costume, and assuming the fascinating graces of Marmion's
Lady Heron:

Fair was her rounded arm, as o'er
The strings her fingers flow.

"Then, Charles, was the moment of peril! then, according to your favorite
Milton's most incongruous image,

You took in sounds that might create a soul
Under the ribs o