Page:Francesca Carrara 2.pdf/43

40 and these are the very young—are joyful in the mere delight of being dressed, and of going out; some—and these are the very happy—look forward to meeting the individual at once their dream and their destiny. Ah! the anxiousness of the question, "Will they be there?" and the delicious knowledge of seeing them the first, the only object in the throng! A third set go for the credit of the thing—it is a sort of social trophy to be seen at such a place. Others go as a matter of course; society is the business of their life, and attendance on a fête is a moral duty. Some go to see—more, to be seen; some to be flattered—others, to flatter. Some go for the sake of their jewels—others, for themselves; and at the close of the festival, how few come away but worn out with lassitude and discontent!

Poor Francesca set out with these feelings. She had none of those pleasant, vague hopes which know not what they ask or what they seek, but which give such buoyancy and such gladness to youth. True, that her broken engagement with Evelyn was a relief; but it had been dearly bought, at the price of many illusions—of gratified vanity, of agreeable expectation, and an emotion the deepest and the tenderest that life can ever know. She felt such an utter want of interest in