Is it not as I have said?
Are not your mere society-ladies too often miserable at home ?" She sighed heavily, as if unpleasant images were forcing themselves upon her mind.

I felt that I might follow up the impression I had made, and resumed: "There was a time, Delia--and it lies only three or four short years backward on your path of life--when I read in your opening mind a promise of higher things than have yet been attained--you must pardon the freedom of an old but true friend.

A time when thought, taste, feeling were all building for themselves a habitation, the stones whereof were truths, and the decorations within and without pure and good affections.

All this"-- I glanced at the rich furniture, mirrors, and curtains--"is poor and mean to that dwelling place of the soul, the foundations for which you once commenced laying.

Are you happier now than then?
Have the half bewildering experiences through which you have passed satisfied you that you are in the right way?
That life's highest blessings are to be found in these pageantries?
Think, think, my dear young friend! Look inwards.