Year: 1868

BACMELVkS bI FhUF ESSlUN.


Monks and dervishes and fakirs are
far from having monopoly of profess
sional celibacy. Every day we come
aprgR meu in society whom We instinct


Hely recognizs as absolutely beyond Che


1als Qf hatfjmony. II is true they have


aksh no vows upon them, and it is just


as vel, for they are not at all the men to


be religiously bound by VOWS under ex-


traordinary temptations. But they


carry a sort of Cain-mark set upon their


brows-conspicuous enough to female
ewes al, least-so that no woman shall


marry them. Not that they are uncon-


scious of the advantages of money, or
insensible to the attractions of beauty.
Without something of the former, their


occupations would be gone, and their
lives blank; and as for the second,
they often profess themselves its most


devoted admirers. They are by no
means Indifferent to their own personal
appearance. Nomadic in their habits
las Arabs, although their forte lies
rather in receiving than in offer
ing hospitality, their wardrobes are
necessarily compact and portable,
but they contain no garment that is


not unexceptionable in cut and fit. Their
slightly.worngloves alone, masterpieces
of Dumont and Jouvin fills, are little
fortune to those who claim them as their
perquisite. They are generally pretty
comfortable in their circumstances you
seldom hear of disagreeable esclandres
with their tradespeople, or Of suspicious
tpaper bearing their names floating in


doubtful quarters. They have lived


through race of folly in which weaker
and more unlucky men have come to
grief long ago, and their eye to the main
chance is very much keener than when
they started in life many years before
They were richer then, but since that
they have sown and reaped many crop
of wild: oats they have bought their
farming experience dear, but now that
it is purchased and paid for. at least,
they are wise enough to profit by it.
Like Ulysses, they have loitered about
among men and loungeds through many
cities. Living much abroad, they are
as much at home in the embassies as in
the hotels of the various European capi-
tals-in those of the embassies at least
which received strangers within their
gates, and they talk Of our minis
ters with republican familiarity. They
are really hand in glove with all
the secretaries of legation and unpaid at
taches from the Hague to Constantinople,
and atone time or another have formed
travelling acquaintance with three
fourths of her Majesty's messengers.
Ofcourse, their peregrinations have en-
larged indefinitely and miscellaneously
thescirclei oftheir friends among the up
per tens thousand, and they are as ia
miliar with the names of those of them


whom they do not know personally as
the editor of the Blue Book or Sir Ber-
nard Burke. There are but few houses
In England where they scannotr trsmake
themselves at once the Valued friend of
the family, by pressing common ac-
quaintances into doing duty by present.
ing them. They must have had fair
brains to start with. taste for society,
and turn for conversation, otherwise
they would have taken to a different
line, or broken down in their present one,
and they have had ample opportunity of
cultivating those natural gifts. I The
school they have been trained in turns
out exceedingly pleasant causeurs and
contours. Their flow of small talk is
copious and genial, and they keep in the


background a reserve of personal and


slightly scandalous anecdote, to give it
occasionally an appetizing piquancy.


With al these social attractions they
are admitted trustingly into the pene-
tralia of female. society. With, much
more ofthe serpent than the dove in their
composition, they are permitted to glide
among the fairest flowers of Paradise,
for they are supposed to have lost their
fatal fangs. q he most austere and hard
|eyed chaperone smooths her front and
disarms her vigilance as she sees them


exchanging affectedly passionate glances


with her pretty charges, or breathing soft
nothipgs among the very roses in their


hair. 1t is a lesson with the foils, and


nothing more-useful practice for more


serious work. The gentleman admires


the graceful outlines, the faultless fea-
lures, of some Edith cou de cygne, but it
| is an object of art, as if he were before
the Venus de Medici in the tribune of
Florence; nor does she quicken


his : pulse by a single beat On
her side the lady never dreams Of him
as a possible husband, and would as
! soon think of being led to the altar by
the Patriarch Of the Greek Church.
Charms and compliments glance alike
from each, as arrows from the plates of


an iron-clad, and they separate the best


friends in the world, but nothing more.


Indeed it could hardly be given to NOR


tai beauty, unaided by entertainments


and love potions, to effect such con-


quest, The professional bachelor is the


embedimeatzof mariness so highly culti-


waited as to amount to folly. Probably


in early life he has left in some trap a


portion of his tail, and since then it has


been the great aim of his existence to


cultivate character for stoicism, which


has been his "open sesame" to the circles
Ha-WuIcu ne uio'es. liz ue make, d


spring and miss it, there would be moth
| ing left him but to stink out of society.


He is become SO suspicious that it is ut


terly in vain to spread snare for him


did he fancy any symptoms of design


to draw him into an arrangement, he
fTQ9H Be satisfied that, all appearances to
/ the contrary. It must be bad, bargain
for him. He would see social birdlime


on every twig, and repel the advances


of an heiress ready to marry him with


out settlement, as the crown declined


to buy the sovereigns of the gentleman