AN ESTIMATE OF FASHIONABLE PARTIES. 101 



desertion. " Why should I any longer waste time and 

 money, and temper ? Once I was ready enough to rush 

 home from the office to dress ; I sported embroidered shirts, 

 submitted to tight boots, and cared nothing for tailors' and 

 haberdashers' bills. I know better now. My patience last- 

 ed a good while ; for though I found each night pass stu^ 

 pidly, I always hoped the next would make amends. But 

 I'm undeceived. Cab-hire and kid gloves cost more than 

 any evening party pays for ; or rather — it is worth the cost 

 of them to avoid the j^arty. No, no ; I'll no more of it. 

 Why should I pay five shillings a time for the privilege of 

 being bored ? " 



If, now, we consider that this very common mood tends 

 towards bUliard-rooms, towards long sittings over cigars 

 and brandy-aud-water, towards Evans's and the Coal Hole, 

 towards every place where amusement may be had ; it be- 

 comes a question whether these precise observances which 

 hamper our set meetings, have not to answer for much of 

 the prevalent dissoluteness. Men must have excitements 

 of some kind or other ; and if debarred from higher ones 

 will fall back upon lower. It is not that those who thus 

 take to irregular habits are essentially those of low tastes. 

 Often it is quite the reverse. Among half a dozen intimate 

 friends, abandoning formalities and sitting at ease round 

 the fire, none will enter with greater enjoyment into the 

 Highest kind of social intercourse — the genuine communion 

 of thought and feeling ; and if the circle includes women of 

 intelligence and refinement, so much the greater is theii 

 pleasure. It is because they will no longer be choked with 

 the mere dry husks of conversation which society ofiers 

 them, that they fly its assemblies, and seek those with whom 

 they may have discourse that is at least real, though unpol- 

 ished. The men who thus long for substantial mental sym- 

 pathy, and will go where they can get it, are often, indeed, 

 much better at the core than the men who are content with 



