THE SEA-SERPENT. 
69 
banquet-hallj could you their depositions take of 
what they heard at last year’s ball! Soft sighs 
and softer speeches breathed in willing ears be¬ 
neath that dome, while gorgeous dress, with 
diamonds wreathed, outshone the carnival at 
Rome. And Beauty thronged from far and near 
to catch some little gleam of fame,— to have it 
whispered in her ear, u My dear Miss A., I see 
your name is mentioned in to-day’s Gazette ; and 
what is more, most charming beauty, ’t is said 
that you eclipsed your set, and won from all 
especial duty.” 
Brave days ! — and bravely looked each guest. 
O, long keep bright this pageant show, where 
North and South, and East and West, from 
Montreal to Mexico, may meet, — but not as 
sometimes, met at Washington, they talk and 
fight o’er party schemes, and groan and fret to 
make right wrong, and wrong seem right. If 
folly sometimes thither strays, ’t is lost in fashion’s 
brilliant blaze ; and I have often doubted whether 
this Union, framed with sword and pen, would 
