In the
latter belief you are correct; but as to being accustomed to it--three
years ago Nimble Dick could have told you a different story!
You can't believe that it is he? I do not wonder. The change is
certainly a great one; but he does not feel it. To tell you the truth,
he almost forgets, when he becomes absorbed in his work, that this sort
of society was not always open to him. Three years means a long time to
the young; and Richard Bolton has so long been accustomed to the freedom
of Mrs. Roberts' parlors, and to the sort of people whom one finds
there, that none of the refinements of polite life are strange to him;
and as to turning music, has he not done it for his hostess numberless
times?
If your eyes are now opened, it is possible that you may be trying to
spy out other young men. The rooms are full of them, elegantly-dressed,
fashionable young men; but a few are noticeable by the air which they
have of being in a sense responsible for the comfort of the others. They
are on the alert; they are taking care that no young guest shall appear
for a moment to be forgotten or neglected. They appear to be entirely
familiar with the house and all its appointments. They can be appealed
to for a glass of water or an ice, or to know what special scene this
landscape hanging over the mantel represents, or whose bust this is in
the niche at the left, or in what portion of the library a certain book
will be found, or from what part of the foreign world that
strangely-shaped shell came, and they are all equally at home.
Pages:
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335