pursuit.  One result of the lavishness and luxury that amazed them they
wrote--had been to raise the standard of culture of the women, who were
our leisure class.  But the travellers did not remain long enough to
arrive at any conclusions of value on the effect of luxury and lavishness
on the sacred institution of marriage. 

If Mr.  Nathaniel Durrett could have returned to his native city after
fifteen years or so in the grave, not the least of the phenomena to
startle him would have been that which was taking place in his own house.
For he would have beheld serenely established in that former abode of
Calvinism one of the most reprehensible of exotic abominations, a
'mariage de convenance;' nor could he have failed to observe, moreover,
the complacency with which the descendants of his friends, the pew
holders in Dr.  Pound's church, regarded the matter: and not only these,
but the city at large.  The stronghold of Scotch Presbyterianism had
become a London or a Paris, a Gomorrah! 

Mrs.  Hambleton Durrett went her way, and Mr.  Durrett his.  The less said
about Mr.  Durrett's way--even in this suddenly advanced age--the better.
As for Nancy, she seemed to the distant eye to be walking through life in