;
and the heart sinks as one sees them side by side with the men who are
to be their husbands.

One of the livelier groups is surging hitherwards; here we have frolic,
here we have humour. The young man who leads them has been going about
all day with the lining of his hat turned down over his forehead; for
the thousandth time those girls are screaming with laughter at the
sight of him. Ha, ha! He has slipped and fallen upon the floor, and
makes an obstruction; his companions treat him like a horse that is
'down' in the street. 'Look out for his 'eels!' cries one; and another,
'Sit on his 'ed!' If this doesn't come to an end we shall die of
laughter. Lot one of the funniest of the party is wearing a gigantic
cardboard nose and flame-coloured whiskers. There, the stumbler is on
his feet again. ''Ere he comes up smilin'!' cries his friend of the
cardboard nose, and we shake our diaphragms with mirth. One of the
party is an unusually tall man. 'When are you comin' down to have a
look at us?' cries a pert lass as she skips by him.

A great review of the People. Since man came into being did the world
ever exhibit a sadder spectacle?

Evening advances; the great ugly building will presently be lighted
with innumerable lamps. Away to the west yonder the heavens are afire
with sunset, but at that we do not care to look; never in our lives did
we regard it. We know not what is meant by beauty or grandeur. Here
under the glass roof stand white forms of undraped men and women--casts
of antique statues--but we care as little for the glory of art as for
that of nature; we have a vague feeling that, for some reason or other,
antiquity excuses the indecent, but further than that we do not get.

As the dusk descends there is a general setting of the throng towards
the open air; all the pathways swarm with groups which have a tendency
to disintegrate into couples; universal is the protecting arm. Relief
from the sweltering atmosphere of the hours of sunshine causes a
revival of hilarity; those who have hitherto only bemused themselves
with liquor now pass into the stage of jovial recklessness, and others,
determined to prolong a flagging merriment, begin to depend upon their
companions for guidance. On the terraces dancing has commenced; the
players of violins, concertinas, and penny-whistles do a brisk trade
among the groups eager for a rough-and-tumble valse; so do the
pickpockets. Vigorous and varied is the jollity that occupies