could not have been offended with such simple ornaments. The
weeds he would have felt due to him, and all that his memory was fairly
entitled to; but the flowers--to speak figuratively--he would have
cheerfully acknowledged were due to us, and that they well became both
face and figure of his lovely relict. As she moved from one room to
another, showering around her serene smiles, we felt the dignity of
those Virgilian words,

"Incedit Regina."

Surely there is something very poetical in the gradual flowing in of the
tide of grace, elegance, and beauty, over the floors of a suite of
regal-looking rooms, splendidly illuminated. Each party as it comes on
has its own peculiar picturesqueness, and affects the heart or
imagination by some novel charm, gently gliding onward a little while by
itself, as if not unconscious of its own attractions, nor unproud of the
gaze of perhaps critical admiration that attends its progressive
movement. We confess ourselves partial to plumes of feathers above the
radiant braidings of the silken tresses on the heads of virgins and
matrons--provided they be not "dumpy women"--tall, white, blue, and pink
plumes, silent in their wavings as gossamer, and as finely delicate,
stirred up by your very breath as you bend down to salute their
cheeks--not with kisses--for they would be out of order both of time and
place--but with words almost as tender as kisses, and awakening almost
as tender a return--a few sweet syllables breathed in a silver voice,
with blushing cheeks, and downcast eyes that, when again uplifted, are
seen to be from heaven.

A long hour ago, and all the mansion was empty and motionless--with us
two alone sitting by each other's side affectionately and respectfully
on a sofa. Now it is filled with life, and heard you ever such a happy
murmur? Yet no one in particular looks as if he or she were speaking
much above breath, so gentle is true refinement, like a delightful
fragrance

"From the calm manners quietly exhaled."

Oh! the atrocious wickedness of a great, big, hearty, huge, hulking,
horse-laugh, in an assemblage of ladies and gentlemen, gathered
gracefully together to enjoy the courtesies, the amenities, the
urbanities, and the humanities of cultivated Christian life! The pagan
who perpetrates it should be burnt alive--not at a slow fire--though
that would be but justice--but at a quick one--that all remnants of him
and his enormity may be instantly extinguished.