le operators
by the mere shame of the public process.

_Mr. Gryll._ I will guarantee you against a Siberian dinner, whenever
you dine with me.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ Mr. Gryll is a true conservative in dining.

_Mr. Gryll._ A true conservative, I hope. Not what a _soi-disant_
conservative is practically: a man who sails under national colours,
hauls them down, and hoists the enemy's, like old customs. I like a
glass of wine with a friend. What say you, doctor? Mr. MacBorrowdale
will join us?

_Mr. MacBorrowdale._ Most willingly.

_Miss Gryll._ My uncle and the doctor have got as usual into a
discussion, to the great amusement of the old lady who sits between them
and says nothing.

Lord Curryfin, Perhaps their discussion is too recondite for her.

_Miss Gryll._ No; they never talk before ladies of any subject in which
ladies cannot join. And she has plenty to say for herself when she
pleases. But when conversation pleases her, she likes to listen and be
silent. It strikes me, by a few words that float this way, that they are
discussing the Art of Dining. She ought to be a proficient in it, for
she lives much in the world, and has met as many persons whom she is
equally willing either to meet to-morrow, or never to meet again, as
any regular _dineur en ville_. And indeed that is the price that must
be paid for society. Whatever difference of character may lie under the
surface, the persons you meet in its circles are externally others
yet the same: the same dress, the same manners, the same tastes and
opinions, real or assumed. Strongly defined characteristic differences
are so few, and artificial general resemblances so many, that in every
party you may always make out the same theatrical company. It is like
the flowing of a river: it is always different water, but you do not see
the difference.

Lord Curryfin. For my part I do not like these monotonous exteriors. I
like visible character. Your uncle and Mr. MacBorrowdale are characters.
Then the Reverend Dr. Opimian. He is not a man made to pattern. He is
simple-minded, learned, tolerant, and the quintessence of _bonhomie_.
The young gentleman who arrived to-day, the Hermit of the Folly, is
evidently a character. I flatter myself, I am a character (_laughing_).

Miss Gryll (_laughing_). Indeed you are, or rather many characters in
one. I never knew a man of such infinite variety. You seem always to
present yourself in the aspect in which those you are with