duels have come of it; it hath made rich no end of
milliners; it hath made bankrupt husbands by the dozen; it hath been the
theatre of several distinguished romances; it hath witnessed the first
throbbings of sundry hearts, since made happy in wedlock; it hath been
the _shibolath_ of sins that shall be nameless here. The reigning belles
are all members (provided they belong to our first families) of the St.
Cecilia, as is also the prettiest and most popular unmarried parson. And
the parson being excellent material for scandal, Mother Rumor is sure to
have a dash at him. Nor does this very busy old lady seem over-delicate
about which of the belles she associates with the parson, so long as the
scandal be fashionable enough to afford her a good traffic.

There is continually coming along some unknown but very distinguished
foreigner, whom the society adopts as its own, flutters over, and
smothers with attentions, and drops only when it is discovered he is an
escaped convict. This, in deference to the reputation of the St.
Cecilia, we acknowledge has only happened twice. It has been said with
much truth that the St. Cecilia's worst sin, like the sins of its sister
societies of New York, is a passion for smothering with the satin and
Honiton of its assemblies a certain supercilious species of snobby
Englishmen, who come over here, as they have it (gun and fishing-rod in
hand), merely to get right into the woods where they can have plenty of
bear-hunting, confidently believing New York a forest inhabited by such
animals. As for our squaws, as Mr. Tom Toddleworth would say, (we shall
speak more at length of Tom!) why! they have no very bad opinion of
them, seeing that they belong to a race of semi-barbarians, whose
sayings they delight to note down. Having no society at home, this
species of gentry the more readily find themselves in high favor with
ours. They are always Oxonians, as the sons of green grocers and
fishmongers are sure to be when they come over here (so Mr. Toddleworth
has it, and he is good authority), and we being an exceedingly
impressible people, they kindly condescend to instruct us in all the
high arts, now and then correcting our very bad English. They are clever
fellows generally, being sure to get on the kind side of credulous
mothers with very impressible-headed daughters.

There was, however, always a distinguished member of the St. Cecilia
society who let out all that took place at its assemblies.