how pretty, or how pleasant she may be, the
Nemesis pursues her and she must succumb. The pleasant Indian idea of
taking old people to the river bank and leaving them for the tide, is
overstrictly carried out by our celibate Brahmins. Marriage is our
Ganges. Don't you wonder how we ever dare to declare ourselves old
enough?"

I did wonder; for it had always been a hobby of mine that a certain
amount of the married leaven was necessary in every society to give it
tone and stamina. Though the French principle of excluding young
ladies from all social intercourse, and giving the patent of society to
_Madame_, may be productive of more harm than good, the converse seems
equally objectionable. I can recollect no society in which some of the
most pleasant memories do not center around the intercourse with its
married portion. Richmond is no exception to the rule. In the South,
women marry younger than in the colder states; and it often happens
that the very brightest and most attractive points of character do
not mature until an age when they have gotten their establishment. The
education of the Virginia girl is so very different in all essential
points from that of the northerner of the same station, that she is
far behind her in self-reliance and _aplomb_. There is, doubtless, much
in native character, but more in early surroundings and the habit
of education. The southerner, more languid and emotional, but less
self-dependent--even if equally "up in" showier accomplishments--is not
formed to shine most at an early stage of her social career. Firmer
foothold and more intimate knowledge of its intricacies are necessary
to her, before she takes her place as a woman of the world.

Hence, I was much puzzled to account for the patent fact that the
better matured of its flowers should be so entirely suppressed, in the
Richmond bouquet, by the half-opened buds. These latter, doubtless,
gave a charming promise of bloom and fragrance when they came to their
full; but too early they left an effect of immaturity and crudity upon
the sense of the unaccustomed. Yet Richmond had written over the
portals of its society: Who enters here no spouse must leave behind!
and the law was of the Medan. A stranger within their gates had no
right to cavil at a time-honored custom; but not one could spend a
winter week in the good old town, and fail to have this sense of
unfinishedness in her society fabric.

The fair daughters of the Capital are