young friend Katie Fairscribe, who, when she is not surrounded by a bevy
of gallants, at which time, to my thinking, she shows less to advantage,
is as pretty, well-behaved, and unaffected a girl as you see tripping
the new walks of Prince's Street or Heriot Row. Old bachelorship so
decided as mine has its privileges in such a _tete-a-tete_, providing
you are, or can seem for the time, perfectly good-humoured and
attentive, and do not ape the manners of your younger years, in
attempting which you will only make yourself ridiculous. I don't pretend
to be so indifferent to the company of a pretty young woman as was
desired by the poet, who wished to sit beside his mistress--

--"As unconcern'd as when
Her infant beauty could beget
Nor happiness nor pain."

On the contrary, I can look on beauty and innocence, as something of
which I know and esteem the value, without the desire or hope to make
them my own. A young lady can afford to talk with an old stager like me
without either artifice or affectation; and we may maintain a species of
friendship, the more tender, perhaps, because we are of different sexes,
yet with which that distinction has very little to do.

Now, I hear my wisest and most critical neighbour remark, "Mr.
Croftangry is in the way of doing a foolish thing, He is well to
pass--Old Fairscribe knows to a penny what he is worth, and Miss Katie,
with all her airs, may like the old brass that buys the new pan. I
thought Mr. Croftangry was looking very cadgy when he came in to play a
rubber with us last night. Poor gentleman, I am sure I should be sorry
to see him make a fool of himself."