escape to the daylight and sparkle in the wave; the rest wastes idly
within. The Pactolus takes but the sand-drifts from the hoards lost to
use in the Tmolus.

"And how," said Saville, seating himself by Lady Erpingham, "how shall we
bear London when you are gone? When society--the everlasting draught--had
begun to pall upon us, you threw your pearl into the cup; and now we are
grown so luxurious, that we shall never bear the wine without the pearl."

"But the pearl gave no taste to the wine: it only dissolved itself--idly,
and in vain."

"Ah, my dear Lady Erpingham, the dullest of us, having once seen the
pearl, could at least imagine that we were able to appreciate the
subtleties of its influence. Where, in this little world of tedious
realities, can we find anything even to imagine about, when you abandon
us?"

"Nay! do you conceive that I am so ignorant of the framework of society as
to suppose that I shall not be easily replaced? King succeeds king,
without reference to the merits of either: so, in London, idol follows
idol, though one be of jewels and the other of brass. Perhaps, when I
return, I shall find you kneeling to the dull Lady A----, or worshipping
the hideous Lady Z----."

"'Le temps assez souvent a rendu legitime
Ce qui sembloit d'abord ne se pouvoir sans crime;"'

answered Saville with a mock heroic air. "The fact is, that we are an
indolent people; the person who succeeds the most with us has but to push