't sufficient, after all, to make life perfect, and then the boredom
of fatigue begins to creep upon them with the years, and soon old age
begins like a worm to eat into what happiness they have had.

Oh, no! When I think of how full your life is, of the interesting
people you know--not merely empty names with a fashionable address or a
coronet on their note paper,--of the places you see and the books you
read; and then hear you say your life is too short to see or enjoy a
third the world has to offer you! You happy, _happy_ woman you!

Well! The house is for sale! What furniture I want to keep stored!
John, who is prematurely old and half-dead with trying to earn enough
money to keep us going as we wished in New York, has entered into it
all in exactly my spirit. He has sold his seat on the stock exchange.
He has disposed of all his business interests here. We find we have
quite enough income to travel as long as we like, moderately, and to
live abroad for as many years as we please. When we get homesick--as we
are both sure to, for after all we are good Americans--we will come
back here and settle down quietly in some little house, near everybody,
but not in the whirlpool--on the banks of society, as it were, so that
when we feel like it we can go and paddle in it for a little, just over
our ankles. Two weeks after you receive this letter you will receive
us! We sail on _Kaiser Wilhelm_ to Naples.

No one here knows what to make of us! It's absurd the teapot tempest
we've created. The verdict finally is that we've either lost our money
or else our minds!

With a heart full of love,

Affectionately,

AGNES.

The Theatre

Four Letters, a Bill, and a Quotation from a Newspaper

I

_A Letter from Mrs. Frederick Strong to her Husband._

... Fifth Avenue, Saturday.

My Dear Fred:

You must come home at once. Dick has announced his engagement to an
actress--a soubrette, too, in a farce-comedy. If it had been a woman
who played Shakespeare, it would have been bad enough, but a girl who
sings and dances and does all sorts of things, including wearing her
dresses up-side down, as it were--that is, too high at the _bottom_ and
too _low_ at the top--well, this is a little too much!--just as we
were getting a really good position in society. If the marriage isn't
put a stop to, you can be sure she'll soon dance and kick us out of any
position whatever that's worth holding. It isn't as if we had any one
to