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[Illustration: THE END OF THE SEASON. AU REVOIR!]

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[Illustration: STAIRCASE SCENES.--NO. 1. PRIVATE VIEW, ROYAL ACADEMY.]

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THE YOUNG GIRL'S COMPANION.

(_BY MRS. PAYLEY,_)

II.--DINING-OUT.

I can quite understand that a young girl may not care much for the
mere material dinner. The palate is a pleasure of maturity. The
woman of fifty probably includes a menu or two among her most sacred
memories; but the young girl is capable of dining on part of a cutlet,
any pink sweetmeat, and some tea. But I must confess that I was
surprised at another objection to dining-out that a young girl, only
at the end of her second season, once made to me. She said that she
positively could not stand any longer the conversation of the average
young man of Society. I asked her why, and she then asserted that this
sort of young man confined himself to flat badinage and personal brag,
which he was mistaken in believing to be veiled. What she said was,
of course, perfectly true. Civilisation is responsible for the flat
badinage, for civilisation requires that conversation shall be light