The ‘ Dolly Dialogues ‘ serve much the same purpose that the ballet does in an opera—they are a divertissement pure and simple. The winsome, irresponsible ‘Dolly’ picks her steps amid the conversational pitfalls which the adroit ‘ Mr. Carter’ spreads for her, with as much dainty sureness as a premiere danseuse, and we cannot but admire and applaud her grace and vivacity. There is no hidden meaning to the ‘Dialogues ‘ any more than there is to ‘Dolly.’ They but reveal the polished inanity of the modern ball-room, the fashionable frivolity of the five o’clock tea-table, and the harmless flirtations of the lawn-tennis court. As ‘trifles light as air, ‘ Mr. Hope offered them to us; as trifles we accept them, and who but the most nobly serious could refuse to smile over their gracefulness, their immaculate innuendo! As a hand-book on ‘Polite Conversations; or, The Art of Saying Nothing Gracefully, ‘ these ‘ Dolly Dialogues ‘ might almost take rank as a serious classic.
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