Every phrase that meets their ear is polished and softened, guarded and delicately turned, till there is not a particle of homely truth left in it.

They pass their time in a world of illusions; they demand these illusions of all who approach them, as the sole condition of peace and favor.

All gentlemen, by a sort of instinct, recognize the woman who lives by flattery, and give her her portion of meat in due season; and thus some poor women are hopelessly buried, as suicides used to be in Scotland, under a mountain of rubbish, to which each passer-by adds one stone.

It is only by some extraordinary power of circumstances that a man can be found to invade the sovereignty of a pretty woman with any disagreeable tidings; or, as Junius says, "to instruct the throne in the language of truth." Harry was brought up to this point only by such a concurrence of circumstances.

He was in love with another woman,--a ready cause for disenchantment.