and
it would be a great improvement to the Christchurch parties if some of
the pretty and partnerless groups of a London ball-room, in all their
freshness of toilette, could be transferred to them. What a sensation
they would make, and what terrible heart-aches among the young gentlemen
would be the result of such an importation! There were the same knots of
men standing together as at a London party, but I must say that, except
so far as their tailor is concerned, I think we have the advantage of
you, for the gentlemen lead such healthy lives that they all look more
or less bronzed and stalwart--in splendid condition, not like your pale
dwellers in cities; and then they come to a ball to dance, arriving
early so as to secure good partners, and their great ambition appears to
be to dance every dance from the first to the last. This makes it hard
work for the few ladies, who are not allowed to sit down for a moment,
and I have often seen a young and pretty partner obliged to divide her
dances between two gentlemen.

Although it tells only against myself, I must make you laugh at an
account of a snub I received at one of these balls. Early in the evening
I had danced with a young gentleman whose station was a long way "up
country," and who worked so hard on it that he very seldom found time
for even the mild dissipations of Christchurch; he was good-looking
and gentlemanly, and seemed clever and sensible, a little _brusque_,
perhaps, but one soon gets used to that here. During our quadrille he
confided to me that he hardly knew any ladies in the room, and that his
prospects of getting any dancing were in consequence very blank. I did
all I could to find partners for him, introducing him to every lady whom
I knew, but it was in vain; they would have been delighted to dance with
him, but their cards were filled. At the end of the evening, when I was
feeling thoroughly done up, and could hardly stand up for fatigue, my
poor friend came up and begged for another dance. I assured him I could
scarcely stand, but when he said in a _larmoyante_ voice, "I have only
danced once this evening, that quadrille with you," my heart softened,
and I thought I would make a great effort and try to get through one
more set of Lancers; my partner seemed so grateful, that the demon of
vanity, or coquetry, or whatever it is that prompts one to say absurd
things induced me to fish for a compliment, and to observe, "It was not
worth while takin