, party-colored gentry than we hoped for.
No! let us tuck them carefully away under our thumbs, and make the most
of them.

Perhaps Asmodeus may have pined in grief, playing his little deuces and
never winning the great stake of fame;--but who shall tell? May not his
hopeful heart break forth some day with regnant power which shall bear
away the prize? Frank, you know, has toiled day and night for wealth to
buy comfort and ease for his modest home. He has made his little
ventures, and has seen his dreams of grand results fade from him, day by
day. Let him venture on. By-and-by his vessels shall come home laden
with noble freights; and his name shall be favorably known on 'Change,
and be printed in the lists of men who pay heavy taxes on swelling
fortunes; and you shall have your jewels and trinkets with the best.
Pinxit, who has been starving in his garret, and whose walls are lined
with dusty canvas, shall lay on colors which shall charm the world; his
old, neglected frames shall be brought out, and the world shall find
Apollos in his men, and Venuses in his women, which before were only
meaner beauties; Vanitas shall loiter round his easel and command his
pencil with ready gold; and Art-Journals shall rehearse his praises in
strange, cabalistic words. Scripsit, who has digested his paltry rasher
in moody silence, shall touch the hearts of men with new-born words of
flame; and the poor epic, which once had served a clownish huckster's
vulgar need, shall travel far and wide, in blue and gold, and lie on
tables weighed with words familiar in all mouths. Patrista, who,
thirsting for his country's good, has been, perforce, content to see all
others rise and sway the crowd, while he has toiled in vain, shall shake
the nation with his eloquence, and from his chair of state, whence go
abroad the statutes he has framed, shall read again his earlier works,
now rescued from the past to teach the young. Reporters on his words
shall hang, from every window shall his sapient visage smile, and even
the London Times shall think it worth the while to underrate him.

And then, my dear Madam, we rarely play alone. The melancholy
unfortunates reduced to solitaire are few indeed. We have partners,
Madam, to share our losses and our gains,--partners to mourn over our
poor little lost deuces, and rejoice when royalty holds its court under
our thumbs. Have not I beloved Mrs. Asmodeus, the lovely, kind, clever
partner of my varied fortune? D