These finished; another half hour is devoted
to dodging in and out of the doors of her very sincere friends, and away
to supper. After supper, cards and after cards, bed; to rise at noon the
next day, and to tread, like a mill-horse, the same trodden circle over
again. Thus the days of life are consumed, one by one, without an object
beyond the present moment; ever flying from the ennui of that, yet
carrying it with us; eternally in pursuit of happiness, which keeps
eternally before us. If death or bankruptcy happen to trip us out of
the circle, it is matter for the buzz of the evening, and is completely
forgotten by the next morning. In America, on the other hand,
the society of your husband, the fond cares for the children, the
arrangements of the house, the improvements of the grounds, fill
every moment with a healthy and an useful activity. Every exertion is
encouraging, because to present amusement it joins the promise of some
future good. The intervals of leisure are filled by the society of real
friends, whose affections are not thinned to cobweb, by being spread
over a thousand objects.
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