ake his selection of a well-turned ankle or a graceful
shape, and, having made an appointment for some non play night, makes
one of the distinguished group of operatic cognoscenti who form the
circle of taste in the centre of the stage on the fall of the curtain.

This is one, and, perhaps, the most conspicuous portrait of an opera
frequenter; but there are a variety of characters in the same school all
equally worthy of a descriptive notice, and each differing in contour
and force of chiaroscuro as much as the one thousand and one family
maps which annually cover the walls of the Royal Academy, to the
exclusion of meritorious performances in a more elevated branch of
art. The Dowager Duchess of A------ retains her box to dispose of her
unmarried daughters, and enjoy the gratification of meeting in public
the once flattering groups of noble expectants who formerly paid their
ready homage to her charms and courted her approving smile; but then her
ducal spouse was high in favour, and in office, and now these "summer
flies o' the court" are equally steady in their devotion to his
successor, and can scarcely find memory or opportunity to recognise
the relict of their late ministerial patron. Lord E------ and the
Marchioness of R.------ subscribe for a box between them, enjoying the
proprietorship in alternate weeks. During the Marchesa's periods of
occupation you will perceive Lady H., and the whole of the blue stocking
illuminati, irradiating from this point, like the tributary stars round
some major planet, forming ~200~~ a grand constellation of attraction.
Here new novels, juvenile poets, and romantic tourists receive their
fiat, and here too the characters of one half the fashionable world
undergo the fiery ordeal of scrutinization, and are censured or
applauded more in accordance with the prevailing on dits of the day, or
the fabrications of the club, than with any regard to feeling, truth, or
decorum. The following week-, how changed the scene!--the venerable
head of the highly-respected Lord E------ graces the corner, like a
Corinthian capital finely chiseled by the divine hand of Praxiteles;
the busy tongue of scandal is dormant for a term, and in her place
the Solons of the land, in solemn thoughtfulness, attend the sage
injunctions of their learned chief. Too enfeebled by age and previous
exertion to undergo the fatigues of parliamentary duty, the baron here
receives the visits of his former colleagues, and snatc