sadness in her looks that told of secret sorrows which were not much
mitigated by all the show of wealth that surrounded her.

By this time the company, having mostly arrived and divested themselves of
hats, gloves, bonnets, shawls, together with all other of the loose
etceteras of dress then in vogue, and carefully consulted the confidential
mirrors to secure that adjustment of collars, curls, smirks, and smiles
which are deemed most favorable for effect in public, were now shown into
the suit of apartments where the host and hostess were waiting to receive
them.

But it is far from our purpose to attempt a detailed description of the
thousand little nothings which go to make up the character of one of these
great fashionable parties. Who ever came from one the wiser? Not one guest
in ten, probably, is found engaged in a conversation in which the ordinary
powers of the speaker are exercised. A forced glee and smartness seem
everywhere to prevail among the company, who are continually sacrificing
their common sense in their eager attempts to appear gay and witty. Who was
ever made really happier by being in such an assemblage? Although the
participants may exhibit to casual observation the semblance of enjoyment,
yet a close inspection will show that they are only _acting_, and that, as
we have already intimated, their apparent enjoyment is no more deserving
the name of social happiness than that which is often represented as
enjoyed by a company of stage actors, in the harassing performance of the
fictitious scenes of some genteel comedy. Who was ever made any better? Any
rational discussion tending to exalt or purify the mind would be deemed out
of place; and any moral teachings would be ridiculed or find no listeners.
And, finally, who was ever made healthier? In the bad air generated among
so many breaths in confined apartments, the high nervous excitement that
usually prevails among the company, and the exposure to cold or dampness to