1830.] The Musing Musician. 40? 



gone a change for the worse. The long-flounced drapery, and large 

 loose hanging sleeves the starched cravats and pigeon-tailed dress- 

 coats gave the figure a most odiously antiquated effect. Seen through 

 the telescope of time, nothing could be more outre and ridiculous. 

 Fancy how the fashions in " La Belle Assemblee" will look fifty years 

 hence, and then imagine my amusement in contemplating the scene 

 around me. 



I could not account to myself for this singular delusion but by sup- 

 posing that we had all been so much interested in the festivities, that 

 months had imperceptibly passed on, and we had counted them as 

 minutes. Still, however, they continued dancing: but I consoled 

 myself by reflecting that it could not last much longer, as the charms of 

 the females were rapidly fading away, their cheeks being already pale 

 with age and fatigue their tresses, whether raven or auburn, requiring 

 the magical and gloss-giving aid of Rowland and their few remaining 

 teeth beginning to ache so that, no longer able to " shew off," they 

 would soon cease to have any reasonable motive for prolonging the 

 dance. As for the other portion of the party, I could easily perceive 

 that they did not caper about with their former ease and alacrity. Their 

 youthful harlequinism had turned into a very Grimaldi-like old 

 age. The gout had done wonders. They limped through the figures 

 like people gallopading over burning ploughshares ; and, in spite of 

 every effort to disguise it, it was clear that their imaginations were set- 

 tling very comfortably into easy chairs and velvet caps. They seemed 

 to treat their legs with particular tenderness and indulgence, and were 

 evidently longing to put their feet into wool. I could see very well 

 where the shoe pinched, and how they gilded every twinge with a smile. 

 There was a little girl one of the musical marvels with which every 

 private family abounds who had been fondly forced by considerate 

 parents and admiring friends to sing every thing, from the Tyrolese air 

 to Tom Bowling, in the earlier part of the evening ; and there to my 

 imagination she stood, in the same spot ogling what had been an agile 

 young ensign when he entered the room, but who was now probably 

 a corpulent colonel without being at all aware of the change. I could 

 not but smile, amidst all my anxieties and uneasiness, when, reflecting 

 on the gay, airy, tripping step that had distinguished every one on 

 entering, I anticipated a view of their approaching exit, hobbling 

 and humiliated. A feeling of revenge sweetened my regret, as I pic- 

 tured one of the most youthful of my tormentors, dim and decrepit, 

 leaning for support on the arm of a tender juvenile, who was obliged 

 to send the servant for a stick to sustain him. 



In contemplating the changes that had taken place in others, I was not 

 unmindful of myself. And here the first thing that occurred to me was 

 what would my wife say to me for my long absence ! The reflection 

 that followed this was and I felt the piano tremble beneath the violence 

 occasioned by the overwhelming idea perhaps she had eloped ! This, 

 indeed, appeared the more probable to my apprehension, as fortune had 

 blessed me with a very intimate friend. Perhaps the thought was suc- 

 ceeded by a strange mixture of sensations perhaps my poor wife was 

 dead ! and by some extraordinary association of circumstances, I im- 

 mediately seemed to shake off my years, and to assume something like 

 the semblance of juvenility. I could not help indulging a hope that, 



