w did you manage it?" "It was rather too hot, and I poured a little
of it into my saucer." "Well, you committed here the greatest fault of
all. You should never pour your coffee into the saucer, but always
drink it from the cup." The poor Abbe was confounded. He felt that
though one might be master of the seven sciences, yet that there was
another species of knowledge which, if less dignified, was equally
important.

This occurred many years ago, but there is not one of the observances
neglected by the Abbe Cosson which is not enforced with equal
rigidness in the present day.

IV.--ENGLISH WOMEN IN HIGH LIFE.

Lord Hardwicke's family consists of his countess, his eldest son
(about eighteen or twenty, Lord Royston by courtesy), three of the
finest-looking daughters you ever saw, and several younger sons. The
daughters--Lady Elizabeth, Lady Mary, and Lady Agnita--are
surpassingly beautiful; such development--such rosy cheeks, laughing
eyes, and unaffected manners--you rarely see combined. They take a
great deal of out-door exercise, and came aboard the Merrimac, in a
heavy rain, with Irish shoes thicker soled than you or I ever wore,
and cloaks and dresses almost impervious to wet. They steer their
father's yacht, walk the Lord knows how many miles, and don't care a
cent about rain, besides doing a host of other things that would shock
our ladies to death; and yet in the parlor are the most elegant
looking women, in their satin shoes and diamonds, I ever saw.... After
dinner the ladies play and sing for us, and the other night they got
up a game of blind-man's-buff; in which the ladies said we had the
advantage, inasmuch as their "petticoats rustled so that they were
easily caught." They call things by their names here. In the course of
the game, Lord Hardwicke himself was blindfolded, and, trying to catch
some one, fell over his daughter's lap on the floor, when two or three
of the girls caught him by the legs and dragged his lordship--roaring
with laughter, as we all were--on his back into the middle of the
floor. Yet they are perfectly respectful, but appear on a perfect
equality with each other.--_Letter from an Officer of the "Merrimac."_

V.--"VIL YOU SAY SO, IF YOU PLEASE?"

"Speaking of _not speaking_," said I, when the general amusement had
abated, "reminds me of an amusing little scene that I once witnessed
in the public parlor of a New England tavern, where I was compelled to
wait several hours for a