conversational powers do not secure him invitations to dinners, when
stiffness of limb and a growing formality have obliged him to retreat
from quadrilles. The rich, we know, thrive everywhere, and at all
seasons, safe from neglect, secure from ridicule. I speak of those less
strongly fortified against the effects of time; those who, scarcely
considered good speculations in their best days, are now utterly
insignificant, concealed and jostled by a crowd of younger aspirants,
overlooked by mammas, except when needed to execute some troublesome
commission; and without a chance of receiving a single word or glance
from their daughters unmarked by that provoking ease and compassionate
familiarity, which tell them, better than words, that their day of
influence has closed for ever. Let such unhappy men fly from the scenes
of former pleasure and power, of former flirtation and gaiety, to the
quieter and surer triumphs of a country town. Here crowds of young
women, as certainly devoted to celibacy as the inmates of a nunnery,
accustomed from necessity to make beaux out of the most unprecedented
materials, and concoct flirtations in the most discouraging
circumstances, will welcome him with open arms, underrate his age,
overrate his merits, doubt if his hair is gray, deny that he wears false
teeth, accept his proffered arm with an air of triumph, and even hint a
wonder that he has given up dancing. To their innocent cheeks his glance
will have the long-lost power of calling up a blush; eyes as bright as
those which beamed upon his youth will sparkle at his approach; and
tender hearts, excluded by fate from palpitations for a more suitable
object, must per force beat quicker at his address. Here let him revel
in the enjoyment of unbounded influence, preserve it by careful
management to the latest possible moment, and at length gradually slide
from the agreeable old beau into the interesting invalid, and secure for
his days of gout, infirmity, and sickness, a host of attentive nurses,
of that amiable sex which delights and excels in offices of pity and