'Show a cat the way to the dairy--' I forget how
the proverb goes on, but it summed up the situation as far as the
Brimley Bomefields' aunt was concerned. She had been introduced
to unexplored pleasures, and found them greatly to her liking, and
she was in no hurry to forgo the fruits of her newly acquired
knowledge. You see, for the first time in her life the old thing
was thoroughly enjoying herself; she was losing money, but she had
plenty of fun and excitement over the process, and she had enough
left to do very comfortably on. Indeed, she was only just
learning to understand the art of doing oneself well. She was a
popular hostess, and in return her fellow-gamblers were always
ready to entertain her to dinners and suppers when their luck was
in. Her nieces, who still remained in attendance on her, with the
pathetic unwillingness of a crew to leave a foundering treasure
ship which might yet be steered into port, found little pleasure
in these Bohemian festivities; to see 'good money' lavished on
good living for the entertainment of a nondescript circle of
acquaintances who were not likely to be in any way socially useful
to them, did not attune them to a spirit of revelry.
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