70 A PIC NIC. 



The concerns of the rest of the company were soon arranged, 

 and apparently to general satisfaction ; for the majority were 

 pleased and who ever cared for the feelings of a minority ? Who 

 had leisure to attend to the history of a pouting quiverincr lip, or 

 an anxious wandering eye ? I was one, probably of the very 

 few, sufficiently disengaged to admit the consciousness that 

 such things were. There is a forward communicativeness in Joy 

 which ever makes it seen. — It is at once known by its mien from 

 every thing but what it is; it looks around for sharers, and 

 (thank Heaven !) seldom looks in vain ; while Disappointment 

 hangs back from the crowd, is doomed often to be mistaken for 

 moroseness or for petulance, and never to find a willing sympa- 

 thy. In the rear of even this merry party there were looks, and 

 I saw them, which bore no testimony to Mrs. Emery's repeated 

 declaration, that " every creature there fnust be pleased and satis- 

 fied." Alas ! this was not assented to by the poor, timid, mor- 

 tified girl, who, in her desertedness, sees one whom she expected 

 (perhaps very tenderly wished) to be her partner, laughing, 

 shrieking, and whisking with another; while deep and cankering 

 envy of the blue-bodiced rival who has displaced her, and perhaps 

 as deep resentment against Mrs. Allington for the thwarting 

 officiousness of an ill-timed introduction, now first found entrance 

 into her hitherto peaceful bosom. — Ay, now for the first time. 

 But who shall say that the malignant passions of such a day will 

 cease with the exciting cause ? And who shall say that the home 

 of that pensive husband will ever again shine upon him as it did 

 before, sad man, with nods, and winks, and becks, he dissented 

 from the proposal of his pretty vain wife, to tike a seat in that 

 phaeton to Allington Park ? Of small account were nods, and 

 winks, and becks, when weighed against such considerations as 

 a phaeton, a bearded captain, and his wild horses, acting on a 

 mind already heated with waltzing and champaign. And who 

 will assert that old Mr. Creeper, whom a rheumatic gout had 

 imprisoned at home, really felt the obligations he expressed to 

 Mr. H., of the Priory, for his special care of little Mrs. Creeper, 

 who was never known to take care of herself .' And small com- 

 fort was it to him that Mrs. H., of the Priory, in a fit of what 

 might be mistaken for jealousy, bestowed her company, and all 

 the smiles she could summon, upon that dissipated wretch Mr. 

 G. of the Deanery. 



But let us leave the melancholy minority. lieioumons a 

 yious moutons. — " Look at that dear interesting creature ! Look 



