There are some to whom that
mad hastening from pleasure to pleasure, that rush from scene to scene
of excitement, that eager crowding into one day and night of gaieties
which might fairly relieve the placid monotony of a month's domesticity,
a month's professional work--some there are to whom this Vanity Fair is
as a treadmill or the turning of a crank, the felon's deepest
humiliation, purposeless, unprofitable, labour.
The regatta was over, and Lady Kirkbank and her charge hastened back to
Arlington Street. Theirs was the very first departure; albeit Mr.
Smithson pleaded hard for a prolongation of their visit. The weather was
exceptionally lovely, he urged. Water picnics were delightful just
now--the banks were alive with the colour of innumerable wild flowers,
as beautiful and more poetical than the gorgeous flora of the Amazon or
the Paraguay river. And Lady Lesbia had developed a genius for punting;
and leaning against her pole, with her hair flying loose and sleeves
rolled up above the elbow, she was a subject for canvas or marble,
Millais or Adams Acton.
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