The Newport Casino is in the nature of a club of the best society.  The building and grounds express the most refined taste.  Exteriorly the house is a long, low Queen Anne cottage, with brilliant shops on the ground-floor, and above, behind the wooded balconies, is the clubroom.  The tint of the shingled front is brown, and all the colors are low and blended.  Within, the court is a mediaeval surprise.  It is a miniature castle, such as might serve for an opera scene.  An extension of the galleries, an ombre, completes the circle around the plot of close-clipped green turf.  The house itself is all balconies, galleries, odd windows half overgrown and hidden by ivy, and a large gilt clock-face adds a touch of piquancy to the antique charm of the facade.  Beyond the first court is a more spacious and less artificial lawn, set with fine trees, and at the bottom of it is the brown building containing ballroom and theatre, bowling-alley and closed tennis-court, and at an angle with the second lawn is a pretty field for lawn-tennis.  Here the tournaments are held, and on these occasions, and on ball nights, the Casino is thronged.

If the Casino is then so exclusive, why is it not more used as a rendezvous and lounging-place?  Alas! it must be admitted that it is not exclusive.  By an astonishing concession in the organization any person can gain admittance by paying the sum of fifty cents.  This tax is sufficient to exclude the deserving poor, but it is only an inducement to the vulgar rich, and it is even broken down by the prodigal excursionist, who commonly sets out from home with the intention of being reckless for one day.  It is easy to see, therefore, why the charm of this delightful place is tarnished.

The band was playing this morning—­not rink music—­when Mrs. Glow and King entered and took chairs on the ombre.  It was a very pretty scene; more people were present than usual of a morning.  Groups of half a dozen had drawn chairs together here and there, and were chatting and laughing; two or three exceedingly well-preserved old bachelors, in the smart rough morning suits of the period, were entertaining their lady friends with club and horse talk; several old gentlemen were reading newspapers; and there were some dowager-looking mammas, and seated by them their cold, beautiful, high-bred daughters, who wore their visible exclusiveness like a garment, and contrasted with some other young ladies who were promenading with English-looking young men in flannel suits, who might be described as lawn-tennis young ladies conscious of being in the mode, but wanting the indescribable atmosphere of high-breeding.  Doubtless the most interesting persons to the student of human life were the young fellows in lawn-tennis suits.  They had the languid air which is so attractive at their age, of having found out life, and decided that it is a bore.  Nothing is worth making an exertion about, not even pleasure.  They had come, one could see, to a just appreciation of their value