But
they were not destined to much amusement that evening, the visitors
amounting only to a small dinner party. Still they had the pleasure
of seeing a few grand ladies issue from their carriages, cross the
stage of their Epiphany, the pavement, and vanish in the paradise
of the shining hall, with its ascent of gorgeous stairs. No broken
steps, no missing balusters there! And they have the show all for
nothing! It is one of the perquisites of street service. What one
would give to see the shapes glide over the field of those camerae
obscurae, the hearts of the street Arabs! once to gaze on the
jewelled beauties through the eyes of those shocked haired girls!
I fancy they do not often begrudge them what they possess, except
perhaps when feature or hair or motion chances to remind them of
some one of their own people, and they feel wronged and indignant
that size should flaunt in such splendour, "when our Sally would
set off grand clothes so much better!" It is neither the wealth
nor the general consequence it confers that they envy, but, as I
imagine, the power of making a show--of living in the eyes and
knowledge of neighbours for a few radiant moments: nothing is so
pleasant to ordinary human nature as to know itself by its reflection
from others. When it turns from these warped and broken mirrors
to seek its reflection in the divine thought, then it is redeemed;
then it beholds itself in the perfect law of liberty.
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