Asheville, it is needless to say, appeared very gay and stimulating to the riders from the wilderness.  The Professor, who does not even pretend to patronize Nature, had his revenge as we strolled about the streets (there is but one of much consideration), immensely entertained by the picturesque contrasts.  There was more life and amusement here in five minutes, he declared, than in five days of what people called scenery—­the present rage for scenery, anyway, being only a fashion and a modern invention.  The Friend suspected from this penchant for the city that the Professor must have been brought up in the country.

There was a kind of predetermined and willful gayety about Asheville however, that is apt to be present in a watering-place, and gave to it the melancholy tone that is always present in gay places.  We fancied that the lively movement in the streets had an air of unreality.  A band of musicians on the balcony of the Swannanoa were scraping and tooting and twanging with a hired air, and on the opposite balcony of the Eagle a rival band echoed and redoubled the perfunctory joyousness.  The gayety was contagious:  the horses felt it; those that carried light burdens of beauty minced and pranced, the pony in the dog-cart was inclined to dash, the few passing equipages had an air of pleasure; and the people of color, the comely waitress and the slouching corner-loafer, responded to the animation of the festive strains.  In the late afternoon the streets were full of people, wagons, carriages, horsemen, all with a holiday air, dashed with African color and humor—­the irresponsibility of the most insouciant and humorous race in the world, perhaps more comical than humorous; a mixture of recent civilization and rudeness, peculiar and amusing; a happy coming together, it seemed, of Southern abandon and Northern wealth, though the North was little represented at this season.

As evening came on, the streets, though wanting gas, were still more animated; the shops were open, some very good ones, and the white and black throng increasing, especially the black, for the negro is preeminently a night bird.  In the hotels dancing was promised—­the german was announced; on the galleries and in the corridors were groups of young people, a little loud in manner and voice,—­the young gentleman, with his over-elaborate manner to ladies in bowing and hat-lifting, and the blooming girls from the lesser Southern cities, with the slight provincial note, and yet with the frank and engaging cordiality which is as charming as it is characteristic.  I do not know what led the Professor to query if the Southern young women were not superior to the Southern young men, but he is always asking questions nobody can answer.  At the Swannanoa were half a dozen bridal couples, readily recognizable by the perfect air they had of having been married a long time.  How interesting such young voyagers are, and how interesting they are to each other!  Columbus never discovered such a large world as they have to find out and possess each in the other.