t hardened theologian would find it
hard to blame for her inherited ophidian tastes and tendencies. How,
then, is he to blame mankind for inheriting "sinfulness" from their first
parents? May not the serpent have bitten Eve before the birth of Cain,
her first-born? That would have made an excuse for Cain's children, as
Elsie's ante-natal misfortune made an excuse for her. But what
difference does it make in the child's responsibility whether his
inherited tendencies come from a snake-bite or some other source which he
knew nothing about and could not have prevented from acting? All this is
plain enough, and the only use of the story is to bring the dogma of
inherited guilt and its consequences into a clearer point of view.

But, after all, the tale must have proved readable as a story to account
for the large number of editions which it has reached.

Some readers have been curious about the locality the writer was thought
to have in view. No particular place was intended. Some of the
characters may have been thought to have been drawn from life; but the
personages mentioned are mostly composites, like Mr. Galton's compound
photographic likenesses, and are not calculated to provoke scandal or
suits for libel.

O. W. H.

BEVERLY FARMS, MASS., August 3, 1891.

ELSIE VENNER.

CHAPTER I.

THE BRAHMIN CASTE OF NEW ENGLAND.

There is nothing in New England corresponding at all to the feudal
aristocracies of the Old World. Whether it be owing to the stock from
which we were derived, or to the practical working of our institutions,
or to the abrogation of the technical "law of honor," which draws a sharp
line between the personally responsible class of "gentlemen" and the
unnamed multitude of those who are not expected to risk their lives for
an abstraction,--whatever be the cause, we have no such aristocracy here
as that which grew up out of the military systems of the Middle Ages.

What we mean by "aristocracy" is merely the richer part of the community,
that live in the tallest houses, drive real carriages, (not "kerridges,")
kidglove their hands, and French-bonnet their ladies' heads, give parties
where the persons who call them by the above title are not invited, and
have a provokingly easy way of dressing, walking, talking, and nodding to
people, as if they felt entirely at home, and would not be embarrassed in
the least, if they met the Governor, or even the President of the United
States, f