ivolous: we still look at pictures with as much zest as before our
dimly remembered teens; and we belong to that happy branch of the
Scribbleri family, that prefer the sympathy of bright eyes and gay
laughter, to the approving shake of any D'Orsay's 'ambrosial curls,' or
the most unqualified smile from the grimmest old champion who even now
votes in his secret heart against the New Tariff, or charges with
unparalleled bravery imaginary or windmill giants on the floor of a
Platform or of a Legislature.

But this, our paper, purporteth to be, in some wise, a disquisition on
Beaux, and, by our faith, we had well-nigh forgotten it. _Retournons a
nos moutons_, as the ancient lawyers used to say (and many a tyro, in
the interim, hath said the same) when they grew so entangled in the
mazes of Jack Shepherd cases that they lost sight of their original
designs. And lest I should grow wearisomely prosaic, and see the yawn
behind your white hand, _belle_ Beatrice, let me make my disquisition a
half story, and point my moral, not as fairies do, with a pinch, but
with the shadow of a tale.

And here, _signorina_, though in courage I am a Caesar, here I shrink.
The birdseye view I would take of a few leaves of beau-dom, should be
from the standing point of your own unquiet, peering eyes; and if even
Cupid is blindfold, how may I, to whom you are all tormentingly
delicious enigmas, hope in my own unaided strength to enter the charmed
citadel of your experiences? Oh, no! But happy is the man, who, with an
inquiring mind, has also a sister! Thrice happy he whose sisters have
just now flitted down the staircase, from their own inner sanctuaries,
into the little library, bearing with them in noisy triumph the Harry of
all Goodfellows, the truant Henrietta Ruyter! Ah! she is the key that
will unlock for me those treasures of thought and observation that I
will shortly lay before you, O readers!

And now to you, O much-traduced star, that presided at my _debut_ into
this vale of tears, may the most glorious rocket ascend that Jackson
ever said or sung, one that shall break out in paeans of brilliant
stars!--_for_, when I entered the charmed presence, the very ball that I
had been wishing to roll was upon the carpet. But of this I was
unconscious as I admired Fanny's new dress, the mysterious earrings of
our stately Bertha, and ventured upon a slight compliment to Henrietta,
who lounged upon the divan. With admirable dexterity, the young l