racts, is as effete as Stahl's Phlogiston! One of
the wisest and wittiest of living authors, recognizing the drift of
the age, offers to supply a great public need, by--'A new proposition
and suited to the tendencies of modern civilization, namely, to
establish a universal Matrimonial Agency, as well ordered as the
Bourse of Paris, and the London Stock Exchange. What is more useful
and justifiable than a Bourse for affairs? Is not marriage an affair?
Is anything else considered in it but the proper proportions? Are not
these proportions values capable of rise and fall, of valuation and
tariff? People declaim against marriage brokers. What else, I pray
you, are the good friends, the near relations who take tie field,
except obliging, sometimes official brokers?' Now, Regina, 'M.
Graindorge,' who makes this proposal to the Parisian world, has lived
long in America, and doubtless received his inspiration in the United
States. Hearts? We modern belles compress our hearts, as the Chinese
do their feet, until they become numb and dwarfed; and some even
roast theirs before the fires of Moloch until they resemble human
_pate de foie gras_. There are a great many valuable truths taught us
in the ancient myths, and for rugged unvarnished wisdom commend me to
the Scandinavian. Did you ever read the account of Iduna's captivity
in the castle of Thiassi in Joetunheim?"

"I never did, and what is more, I never will, if it teaches people to
think as harshly of the world as you seem to do."

"You sweet, simple blue-eyed dunce! How shamefully your guardian
neglects your education! Never even heard of the Ellewomen? Why, they
compose the most brilliant society all over the world. Iduna was a
silly creature, with a large warm heart, and loved her husband
devotedly; and in order to cure her of this arrant absurd folly she
was carried away and shut up with the Ellewomen, very fair creatures
always smiling sweetly. The more bitterly the foolish young wife wept
and implored their pity, the more pleasantly they smiled at her; and
when she examined them closely she found that despite their beauty
they were quite hollow, were made with no hearts at all, and could
compassionate no one. I have an abiding faith that they had Borgia
hair, hazel eyes, red lips, and sloping white shoulders just like
mine. They have peopled the world; a large colony settled in this
country, we are nearly all Ellewomen now, and you are an ignorant,
wretched little Idu