"These parties that begin at nine o'clock and end at two or three in the morning are shameful things," says fat Mrs. Q., complacently fanning herself. (N. B. Mrs. Q. is plotting to have one the very next week, and has come just to see the fashions.) "O, dreadful, dreadful!" exclaim, in one chorus, meek Mrs. M., and tall Mrs. F., and stiff Mrs. J. "They are very unhealthy," says Mrs. F. "They disturb all family order," says Mrs. J. "They make one so sleepy the next day," says Mrs. M. "They are very laborious to get up, and entirely useless," says Mrs. Q.; at the same time counting across the room the people that she shall invite next week. Mrs. M. and Mrs. F. diverge into a most edifying strain of moral reflections on the improvement of time, the necessity of sobriety and moderation, the evils of conformity to the world, till one is tempted to feel that the tract society ought to have their remarks for general circulation, were one not damped by the certain knowledge that before the winter is out each of these ladies will give exactly such another party. And, now, are all these respectable ladies hypocritical or insincere? By no means--they believe every word they say; but a sort of necessity is laid upon them--a spell; and before the breath of the multitude their individual resolution melts away as the frosty tracery melts from the window panes of a crowded room. A great many do this habitually, resignedly, as a matter of course. Ask them what they think to be right and proper, and they will tell you sensibly, coherently, and quite to the point in one direction; ask them what they are going to do. Ah! that is quite another matter. They are going to do what is generally done--what Mrs. A., B., and C. do. They have long since made over their conscience to the keeping of the public,--that is to say, of good society,--and are thus rid of a troublesome burden of responsibility. Again, there are others who mean in general to have an opinion and will of their own; but, imperceptibly, as one and another take a course opposed to their own sense of right and propriety, their resolution quietly melts, and melts, till every individual outline of it is gone, and they do as others do.