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 last, like the canons in a procession; for one should always keep the best for last, and these ladies were assuredly creatures of rarity and art, diamonds of clear water. I know not precisely where they all came from, but they were finely dressed and well proportioned and seemed always cheerful and ready for a joke, in fact there is little doubt that Roger's feminine guests were exceedingly nice girls, though some severe persons have chid him for keeping bad company. I do not exactly understand what this phrase means, for no company is bad for a wise man; and I think the people who talk in this way cannot have heard tell of Socrates, the king of wisdom, who no sooner was advised of the advent of Madam Theodota, a notorious strumpet, to the dearly-beloved city of Cecrops than he cried out "by the dog" and (as if he had been bitten by a mad one) posted off to this pretty piece in a tremendous hurry. And you remember how he found a painter pleasantly employed in setting her on canvas, and how these two, the beautiful witty strumpet and the old goggle-eyed flat-nosed quintessencer, talked together, for you have without doubt read the Pellakis ethaumasa. And the moral of this is that Socrates knew what he was about, for he was a very great extractor of fifth essence, and that all of us, who are as logs compared to him, must touch our caps and not venture to contradict a word he said. And how anybody could call the Fair Ladies of Penhow, as this gay sisterhood was termed during their reign, bad company, is beyond my conceit; for I do assure you they had