Page:A hairdresser's experience in high life.djvu/11

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IN HIGH LIFE.
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indignantly repudiated any such arrangement: and it was not until after repeated solicitations from them, that I consented to take my seat. The whole party was merry and pleasant, and I soon felt at my ease, and not at all like an intruder. Well-bred people perfectly understand the art of making all comfortable around them, no matter what their color or condition may be. I have observed that parvenu ladies and gentlemen know nothing whatever of this gentle art: born and brought up in coarse atmospheres, refined conduct should never be expected of them. Society is made up of varieties; but it is easy for the humblest servant to distinguish the well-born and highly-bred lady, under the plainest garb, from the parvenu woman, whose sudden good luck and well-filled purse dresses her in lace, seats her in a carriage, and places her in circles where she is more endured than courted.

The table was loaded with every luxury; but the excitement occasioned by the novelty of my position deprived me of appetite. I was entirely unfamiliar with table etiquette, and felt conscious of looking awkward and embarrassed; but the kind ladies and gentlemen, understanding the nature of my discomfort, spared no pains to put me at my ease.

On sped the vessel, with its precious freight of human life, each heart beating quicker as the distance from land, and home, and friends was shortened by the revolutions of the mighty wheels. How much of the happiness of this world is comprised in such anticipated meetings! and how miserable they must be who know nothing of such joys as these!

Before we touched the shores of Toronto I felt perfectly at home among my new-found friends. They