Beatrice.

P . S . to her clearest , clearest friend , thus deals AA'ith this A'ery difficult and delicate cpiestion , — "P . S . I have found on reflection One fault in my friend , " entre nous , " Without it he'd just be perfection : Poor fellow , he has not a ' sou . ' Aud so Avhen he comes in September

To shoot Avith my Uncle Sir Dan I ' ve promised mamma to remember He ' s only a talented man . " NOAV I am quite aware that I am treading on very ticklish ground , and some of my readers will eA'en think , ancl perhaps say , that Miss Jane Morley ought not to have shoAA'n her liking for " Master TAvamley . "

Well , I don't agree with them . Indeed ., I condemn from the very bottom of my heart that prudery AA'hich affects to think that it is a proof of true feminine modest y to conceal carefully your preference for any one particular or favoured individual . HOAV unwise it is , because some foolish person has said , " Force a man to find out your real feeling , " to conceal from an honest-hearted felloAV the real AA'ish ancl leaning of your heart ! How in the name of the " eleven thousand virgins " is any man to find out AA'hat

you so carefully hide up ? Half the men in the world Avon't take the trouble , and therefore the one you really care for walks off , ancl you ancl he wander on in diverse paths , perhaps both to end some day in a wretched "fiasco . " NOAV I don't want girls to be forward , or fast , or slangy , or unmaidenly , by avoAving their fondness for Tom , Dick , and Harry : but if a Avoman chooses , she can always let a man Avho'is worth } ' of her know , if by some mysterious intuition , her

innermost thoughts and feelings , on a matter of such vital importance to herself , and also , . 1 imagine , not less to him . NOAV in saying this I am not to be supposed to be advocating hasty or ill-considered marriages—marriages against the Avish of parents and families . That is never a Avise thing to do ; ancl an impecunious marriage is a great blunder . Neither must I be supposed to assail " family compacts , " and the like , or " comfortable settlements" generally ; because , as Mrs . Balassb says , they are the " palladium " of society .

I do not profess to be an admirer of the " Conseil de Eamdle " myself . In all countries where it exists it has Avorked untold social evils of every kind ; ancl I for one thank my stars that that " blessed institution , " like the Inquisition , ancl a good many more old-Avorld curiosities , neA'er had any footing , ancl , I believe , never AA'ill have any , in this good free England of ours . But there are family arrangements" ancl family arrangements" ancl I should not

, , dare , especially in the Masonic Magazine , to utter any revolutionary language on this most important topic . Tet I cannot refrain from saying that I fear more marriages are made " on earth " than " in heaA'en " just noAA ' , and I fear moreover that far too many charming girls are induced to marry for Avealth ancl position alone , so that many a fair fiancee amongst us may truly be said , alas ,

" To have gathered the links of a yilded chain , And fastened them proudly round her . " But let us get on , ancl leave behind us metaphysical disquisitions and hymeneal reminiscences ! AVe Avere a very merry party that evening . I greatly enjoyed Mrs . Mortimer ' s unpretending tea , ancl homely , unsophisticated welcome to us all . HOAV is it that we have become so artificialand so formal ,, and so grandand so profuse ?

, , HOAV is it that society seems to have lost its charm of real Avelcorne ancl simple heartiness , ancl to have degenerated into a scramble of ostentatious show ancl unmitigated sham ? If some of pur young , or rather elderly men , are said to sigh to-clay " for the girls of other clays , " as Avell as for their " dresses , " must Ave not all lament that good old-