CHAPTER XIII. The bride-maidens who round her thronging came, Making the joy which should have been another's Their own, by gentle sympathy: and some Some few admiring what can ever lure Maidens to leave the heaven, serene and pure, Of parents' smiles for life's great cheat; a thing Di chi mi fido, guardami Dio, Di chi non mi fido mi guardero io. SHELLEY. Defend me from my friends! ITALIAN PROVERB. COMMON SAYING. CHAIRS, tables, sofas, were covered; the floor was strewed; every nook and cranny of that large apartment were filled with silks, satins, laces, blondes; with rarest porcelain, whose enamelled dyes might have challenged the floral goddess to produce their peers; with or-molu clocks, that did every thing but "give a tongue to time;" with alabaster vases, in which a naiad might have laved her fairy limbs. The rarest bijouterie, the brightest gems sparkled amidst that glittering heap. It seemed as though Howel, Harding, Hamlet ("Oh, words of fear, unpleasing to a husband's ear,") had poured forth their tributary stores into that vast emporium. With garments carefully folded round them, lest their voluminous folds, hanging sleeves, and pendent drapery, should get entangled, amid those "fields of waste," a cluster of ladies were dilating, commenting, admiring, in every varied tone of demonstrative female eloquence: there was a din and clatter of tongues, to which the chattering of a whole generation of parrots, or entire forest of Brazilian monkeys, would have been low and inaudible. At length, superlatives were exhausted-"the force of flattery could no further go;" admiration was at a discount; encomiums a mere drug in the market; and then there ensued the ceremony of leave-taking; the conclave was dissolved; and away they went, to praise or blame, sympathise with, or envy (as the gall or chyle of their animal nature predominated), the lady for whose especial benefit all these good gifts were in store, winding up their discourse, with the consolatary ejaculation, that "marriages are made in heaven.” This heterogeneous group was succeeded by two young ladies, who, in virtue of the important official situation they were to hold on the morrow, had been promised a private view of the exhibition; where, undisturbed by the mixed multitude, they might be carping and critical to their hearts' content, after the approved fashion of most dilettanti, and admirers of the fine arts. Miss Brookes and Miss Page were ushered in by Marables, the priestess of the temple; and after a "Dearest Viola, how are you?" addressed to Miss Sidney, who was seated on a sofa at the remotest corner from the scene of action, they proceeded to an elaborate survey of the trousseau. Miss Brookes always reminded me of a precipice, being rough, angular, rugged, and perpendicular; she was, too, that unnatural compound, a sentimental blue, one of those young ladies in whose mouths hydrogen, and hydrophylacia, antagonist principles, and discriminative motion, are familiar as household words; who plunge deeply into political economy, meander through the mazes of metaphysics, discuss the poor-laws unblushingly through all their manifold clauses; who use words of learned length and thundering sound, quote Latin as trippingly as an usher at a preparatory school, and prate of Byron the bewitching, and Shelley the soul-subduing, whether or not for the sake of 'apt alliteration' it would be invidious to inquire. In accordance with her father's wish, Viola had asked Miss Brookes to fill the honourable and honorary situation of bride-maid. Mr. Sidney deemed it would be only paying a fitting compliment to Mr. Brookes, who was the senior partner in the firm. Viola had earnestly entreated that I would make one of the corps of attendant nymphs, but I felt that, at my age, such a proceeding would be truly ridiculous; and, although not convinced, she yielded at length to my arguments. Lady Jane and Lady Barbara were, at their brother's request, pressed into the service;-I am sure they would have refused, could they have furnished themselves with reasonable excuse. any By the way, it is matter of marvel to me, that, in these days of clipping and paring, that same official sinecure of bride-maid should not be abolished by act of parliament; but then, to be sure, there is no fee or bountith thereunto appertaining, so I suppose the wise ones are content to let it alone. 66 Mais, revenons à nos moutons." Miss Brookes, then, after bestowing divers gratuitous observations on the unclassical taste displayed in the arrangement of the dresses, &c., which made Marables's blood boil with indignation, sat down to examine a H costly sapphire, which had been tastefully mounted in the form of a brooch, and which she now, with affectionate solicitude, entreated Viola never to wear; assuring her that it contained a vast quantity of expansive fluid, which would infallibly cause it to explode, and the consequences might be most alarming. This she proceeded to demonstrate on philosophical principles, summing up her argument with the notable observation, that the gem was only fit for a cabinet of curiosities.-N. B. Miss Brookes's collection of minerals, spars, shells, butterflies, moths, stuffed birds, and beasts, reptiles, and rubbish, was much vaunted amongst her especial coterie. "Oh, Miss Page, in the meanwhile, with girlish delight, was rhapsodising on each successive article that Marables brought for her inspection. what a love of a dress! what a fascinating cloak! what an irresistible bonnet!" she exclaimed, as dresses, cloaks, and bonnets, were pointed out by Marables, and expatiated on, much in the same style as you may hear a connoisseur in painting dilate on a Rubens, a Raphael, or a Rembrandt. "Now, ladies, a little more to the left, and the light will fall on this gros-de-Naples." She held it aloft-she came near-she fell back-she extended it at arm's length. "Look at the exquisite bloom on the peach; how delicately the ground colour is |