and bitterness. The flags droop, the sails of the fishing-boats hang
idle; the land and the sea are conquered by the great light of the sun.

Some people become famous by being always in one attitude. Meet them when
you will, they have invariably got an arm--the same arm--crossed over the
breast, and the hand thrust in between the buttons of the coat to support
it. Morning, noon, or evening, in the street, the carriage, sitting,
reading the paper, always the same attitude; thus they achieve social
distinction; it takes the place of a medal or the red ribbon. What is a
general or a famous orator compared to a man always in the same attitude?
Simply nobody, nobody knows him, everybody knows the mono-attitude man.
Some people make their mark by invariably wearing the same short pilot
coat. Doubtless it has been many times renewed, still it is the same
coat. In winter it is thick, in summer thin, but identical in cut and
colour. Some people sit at the same window of the reading-room at the
same hour every day, all the year round. This is the way to become marked
and famous; winning a battle is nothing to it. When it was arranged that
a military band should play on the Brunswick Lawns, it became the fashion
to stop carriages in the road and listen to it. Frequently there were
carriages four deep, while the gale blew the music out to sea and no one
heard a note. Still they sat content.

There are more handsome women in Brighton than anywhere else in the
world. They are so common that gradually the standard of taste in the
mind rises, and good-looking women who would be admired in other places
pass by without notice. Where all the flowers are roses, you do not see a
rose. They are all plump, not to say fat, which would be rude; very
plump, and have the glow and bloom of youth upon the cheeks. They do not
suffer from "pernicious anaemia," that evil bloodlessness which London
physicians are not unfrequently called upon to cure, when the cheeks are