u know how sorry we were
not to be with you.

Very sincerely,
Ethel Norman.
Tuesday morning.

=II=

Dear Mrs. Neighbor:

My gardener has just told me that our chickens got into your
flower beds, and did a great deal of damage.

The chicken netting is being built higher at this moment and they
will not be able to damage anything again. I shall, of course,
send Patrick to put in shrubs to replace those broken, although
I know that ones newly planted cannot compensate for those you
have lost, and I can only ask you to accept my contrite
apologies.

Always sincerely yours,
Katherine de Puyster Eminent.

=LETTERS OF THANKS=

In the following examples of letters intimate and from young persons, such
profuse expressions as "divine," "awfully," "petrified," "too sweet," "too
wonderful," are purposely inserted, because to change all of the above
enthusiasms into "pleased with," "very," "feared," "most kind," would be
to change the vitality of the "real" letters into smug and self-conscious
utterances at variance with anything ever written by young men and women
of to-day. Even the letters of older persons, although they are more
restrained than those of youth, avoid anything suggesting pedantry and
affectation.

Do not from this suppose that well-bred people write badly! On the
contrary, perfect simplicity and freedom from self-consciousness are
possible only to those who have acquired at least some degree of
cultivation. For flagrant examples of pretentiousness (which is the
infallible sign of lack of breeding), see page 61. For simplicity of
expression, such as is unattainable to the rest of us, but which we can at
least strive to emulate, read first the Bible; then at random one might
suggest such authors as Robert Louis Stevenson, E.S. Martin, Agnes
Repplier, John Galsworthy and Max Beerbohm. E.V. Lucas has written two
novels in letter form--which illustrate the best type of present day
letter-writing.

=LETTERS OF THANKS FOR WEDDING PRESENTS=

Although all wedding presents belong to the bride, she generally words her
letters of thanks as though they belonged equally to the groom, especially
if they have been sent by particular friends of his.

_To Intimate Friends of the Groom_

Dear Mrs. Norman:

To think of your sending us all this wonderful glass! It is
simply divine,