ETHEL CHURCHILL.
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CHAPTER XVII.
ANOTHER LONDON LIFE.
A pretty, rainbow sort of life enough;
Filled up with vanities and gay caprice:
Such life is like the garden at Versailles,
Where all is artificial; and the stream
Is held in marble basins, or sent up
Amid the fretted air, in waterfalls;
Fantastic, sparkling; and the element,
The mighty element, a moment's toy;
And, like all toys, ephemeral.
Pleasure lasts forever, but enjoyment does not: the reason is, that the one lies around, and perpetually renews itself; but the other lies within, and exhausts itself. Lady Marchmont was at the pleasantest stage of both. At first, all things are new, and most things delightful. Vanity, novelty, and excitement, at once the graces and fates of society, were
