ing his face, "times are much
changed, I see, since my youth. Then you would see no such throngs
assembled in so small a space; gentlemen shoving ladies, and yes, Emmy,"
continued her uncle in a lower tone, as if afraid of uttering something
dangerous, "the ladies themselves shouldering the men. I remember at a
drum given by Lady Gosford, that although I may, without vanity, say I was
one of the gallantest men in the rooms, I came in contact with but one of
the ladies during the whole evening, with the exception of handing the
Lady Juliana to a chair, and that," said her uncle, stopping short and
lowering his voice to a whisper, "was occasioned by a mischance in the old
duchess in rising from her seat when she had taken too much strong waters,
as she was at times a little troubled with a pain in the chest."

Emily smiled at the casualty of her grace, and they proceeded slowly
through the table until their passage was stopped by a party at the game
of whist, which, by its incongruous mixture of ages and character,
forcibly drew her attention.

The party was composed of a young man of five or six and twenty, who
threw down his cards in careless indifference, and heedlessly played with
the guineas which were laid on the side of the table as markers, or the
fruits of a former victory: or by stealing hasty and repeated glances
through the vista of the tables into the gayer scenes of the adjoining
rooms, proved he was in duresse, and waited for an opportunity to make his
escape from the tedium of cards and ugliness to the life of conversation
and beauty.

His partner was a woman of doubtful age, and one whose countenance rather
indicated that the uncertainty was likely to continue until the record of
the tomb-stone divulged the so often contested circumstance to the world.
Her eyes also wandered to the gayer scenes, but with an expression of
censoriousness mingled with longings; nor did she neglect the progress of
the game as frequently as her more heedless partner. A glance thrown on
the golden pair which was placed between her and her neighbor on her
right, marked the importance of the _corner_, and she shuffled the cards
with a nervousness which plainly denoted her apprehension of the
consequences of her partner's abstraction.

Her neighbor on the right was a man of sixty, and his vestments announced
him a servant of the sanctuary. His intentness on the game proceeded no
doubt from his habits of reflection; his smile at