icles escape to the daylight and sparkle in
the wave; the rest wastes idly within. The Pactolus takes but the
sand-drifts from the hoards lost to use in the Tmolus.

"And how," said Saville, seating himself by Lady Erpingham, "how
shall we bear London when you are gone? When society--the everlasting
draught--had begun to pall upon us, you threw your pearl into the cup;
and now we are grown so luxurious, that we shall never bear the wine
without the pearl."

"But the pearl gave no taste to the wine: it only dissolved
itself--idly, and in vain."

"Ah, my dear Lady Erpingham, the dullest of us, having once seen the
pearl, could at least imagine that we were able to appreciate the
subtleties of its influence. Where, in this little world of tedious
realities, can we find anything even to imagine about, when you abandon
us?"

"Nay! do you conceive that I am so ignorant of the framework of society
as to suppose that I shall not be easily replaced? King succeeds king,
without reference to the merits of either: so, in London, idol follows
idol, though one be of jewels and the other of brass. Perhaps, when I
return, I shall find you kneeling to the dull Lady A----, or worshipping
the hideous Lady Z----."

"'Le temps assez souvent a rendu legitime
Ce qui sembloit d'abord ne se pouvoir sans crime;"'

answered Saville with a mock heroic air. "The fact is, that we are an
indolent people; the person who succeeds the most with us has but to
push the most. You know how Mrs. ----, in spite of her red arms, her red
gown, her city pronunciation, and her city connexions, managed--by dint
of perseverance alone--to become a dispenser of consequence to the very
countesses whom she at first could scarcely coax into a courtesy. The
person who can stand ridicule and rudeness has only to desire to become
the fashion--she or he must be so sooner or later."

"Of the immutability of one thing among all the changes I may witness
on my return, at least I am certain no one still will dare to think for
himself. The great want of each individual is, the want of an opinion!
For instance, who judges of a picture from his own knowledge of
painting? Who does not wait to hear what Mr. ----, or Lord ---- (one of
the six or seven privileged connoisseurs), says of it? Nay, not only
the fate of a single picture, but of a whole school of painting, depends
upon the caprice of some one of the self-elected dictators. The King,
or the Duke of ----, has