SELECTION 123 



pairs of angry scissors would find swift way to his 

 heart ! — where, behind acres of plate-glass, and upon 

 miles of counter, the rich thick silk stands up in 

 pyramids, and the delicate aristocratic satin gleams 

 like an opal. Ask the shopman (I beg pardon, the 

 employ6s^ or the aides-de-camp^ or whatever may be 

 their modern title ^) to educe their newest, most 

 recherche robes, and beseech of Venus to choose. 



Will there not be in these cases a delicious 

 perplexity, an ecstasy of amazement, an embarrass- 

 ment of riches ? Imagine to yourself this happy 

 hesitation, and you will know something of my 

 present sweet uncertainty. How am I to begin my 

 selection of Roses ? It seems as though, gazing upon 

 an illuminated city, I was asked to point out the 

 brightest candles ; as though, where fireflies gleamed 

 by the million, and humming-birds glowed by the 

 thousand, I was ordered to transfix with the entomo- 

 logical pin the brightest specimens of the one, and 

 to adjust upon the ornithological wires the most 

 exquisite examples of the other. 



As to any scientific arrangement, ethnological, 

 genealogical, or physiological classification, I am 

 helplessly, hopelessly incapable. I have as * poor 



^ A lady, calling to rectify a mistake at one of our great inagasins les 

 modes^ was asked, * Was it a tall gentleman wilh a dark moustache 

 who was with you ? * and replied, * No ; it was a stout nobleman, 

 about five feet high, with a squint.* 



