Charlotte and Octavius left the room together shortly after, Augustus, yawning and stretching, sauntered off to "adonize," as he said, and Helena and Evelina prepared for their singing master.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE early day appointed for the Marchmonts to dine with Mrs. de Snobyn arrived, and precisely at half-past six, exactly the proper description of persons, exactly the proper number of persons, sat down to exactly the proper dinner in Mrs. de Snobyn's handsome dining-room. One of her great points was the assorting of her parties, and her admirable management of them. People always returned from her house pleased and satisfied. This

power, this tact of so managing guests, that each individual feels satisfied, and the general enjoyment is not suffered to flag, is a gift of nature; it cannot be acquired. We have seen highly accomplished women, who lived in a whirl of society totally deficient in it, while others, without half their practical knowledge of the conventional etiquette of society, or half their accomplishment in its higher graces, have surpassed them far in the success of their parties. Mrs. de Snobyn had this tact or talent in perfection.

In the first place, she always assorted her visitors well; contriving that there should be sufficient accordance of taste and feeling, to prevent inharmonious collision, yet sufficient variety of sentiment to prevent mawkish inanity. She was always au fait at all the new fashions of killing time, and had generally some novelty of the sort to bring forward, when her quick eye detected languor stealing over animation, or brisk conversation gradually sub

siding into silence. At this time too she had admirable supports in her two eldest daughters; they had been educated to shine in society-and they seemed very likely to fulfil their mother's views in that respect. They were admirable in superficial accomplishments, in all the little exigencies and requirements of a morning lounge or an evening party. It was Mrs. De Snobyn's good taste rather than high principle or correct judgment, which led her entirely and practically, to negative the idea of her daughter's playing like profes

sors.

It was not the enormous time that is so inevitably consumed, and in most instances, so deplorably wasted in enabling young ladies to struggle through and to "execute," how deplorably-the fugues and fantasias of Kalkbrenner, Moscheles, Hummel, and Hertz-it was not the waste of time that Mrs. De Snobyn considered, so much as the utter nullity of the thing when done. Her decided wishes, as expressed to the

highly accomplished professor, whom she selected as her daughters' instructor, were that they should attempt nothing elaborate or difficult, but that they should execute fashionable trifles-the easier they were the better with taste, precision, and elegance. Her own ear and taste, fully enabled her to further, in their private practice, the assiduous teaching of the professor himself.

other things

The Miss De

The same rule held in drawing, needlework, &c. Snobyns were quick and skilful in the fabrication of those petits riens with which it is the fashion to litter a drawing-room, but they were not allowed to dim the brightness of their eyes or risk the warping of their shoulders by a close application of the best hours of the day, to the trying tent, or wearying cross stitch, of an elaborate ottoman, a high-backed chair, or worse still, a carpet in in squares, where your friends will they nill they are dragged into the service. We are apt to ridicule the