e of books, and making him the hero of all the Mrs.
Malaprop-isms he could pick up or invent; or, as we have seen, speaking
very disrespectfully of the motives which had led him to commit
matrimony; and Gerard was not slow to make corresponding comments on
various foibles of Harry. But the spirit of detraction was most fully
developed in men who were not professionally idle, but had, or professed
to have, some little business on hand. Of this class was Arthur Sedley,
an old acquaintance and groomsman of Benson, and a barrister--(they are
beginning to talk about barristers now in New-York, though it is a
division of labor not generally recognized in the country)--of some
small practice. Really well educated, well read, and naturally clever,
his cleverness and knowledge were vastly more disagreeable than almost
any amount of ignorance or stupidity could have been. When he cut up
right and left every man or woman who came on the _tapis_, his sarcasms
were so neatly pointed that it was impossible to help laughing with him;
but it was equally impossible to escape feeling that, as soon as your
back was turned, he would be laughing at you. Riches and rich people
were the commonest subject of his sneers, yet he lost no opportunity of
toadying a profitable connection, and was always supposed to be on the
look-out for some heiress.

The next thing which made Ashburner marvel was the extreme youth of the
fashionable set, particularly the male portion of it; or, to speak more
critically, the way in which the younger members of the set had
suppressed their elders, and constituted themselves _the_ society. A
middle-aged man, particularly if, like Loewenberg, he happened to be
rich, might be admitted to terms of equality, but the papas and mammas
were absolutely set aside, and became mere formulas and appendages. The
old people were nowhere; no one looked after their comfort in a crowd,
or consulted them about any arrangement till after the arrangement was
made. They had no influence and no authority. When Miss Friskin rode a
wild colt bareheaded through the streets of Oldport, or danced the
Redowa with little Robinson in so very _chateau-rouge_ a style that even
Mrs. Harrison turned away, poor Mrs. Friskin could interpose no
impediment to the young lady's amusement; and even her father, the
respected senior of the wealthy firm, Friskin & Co., who must have heard
from afar of his daughter's vagaries (for all these things were written