I scrambled in like one in fear
With a ghost at his heels, or a flea in his ear,
And he was left lamenting!

_Blackwood's Magazine._

* * * * *



GOOD AND BAD STYLES OF LIVING.


Good style of living consists in having a mansion exquisitely fitted
up with all the expensive bijouterie compatible with true elegance,
yet avoiding the lavish superabundance of gimcrackery which borders
on vulgarity; comely serving men in suitable liveries, all so well
initiated into the mysteries of their respective duties, that a guest
could imagine himself in a fairy palace, where plates vanish without
the contamination of a mortal finger and thumb, and glasses move without
a jingle: then the feast is exquisitely cooked and exquisitely served;
the table groans not, the hostess carves not; but one delicious dainty
is followed by another, and each remove brings forth a dish more piquante
than the last: every thing is delightful, but there must appear to be an
abundance of nothing; two spoonsful alone of each delicious viand should
repose under its silver cover; and he who dared ask to be helped a second
time to any thing, ought to be sentenced to eternal transportation from
the regions of haut ton.

Bad style of living--Shocking even to describe! A large house in streets