under fifteen should not be put into mourning. No girl under
seventeen should wear crepe.

=For Men.=--A widower, for the first eighteen months, should wear complete
suit of black, black lusterless silk cravats, white linen, cuff-links of
dull black enamel, dull black leather shoes, black gloves, and a crepe
hat-band. After a year, the band may be left off. For second mourning,
gray or black clothes, black-and-white silk neckties, gray gloves, and
white or black-and-white linen are proper.

Mourning for parent, child, sister, or brother is worn six months or a
year, according to desire. In these cases, also, the crepe hat-band is
used, but is narrower than that worn by a widower.

The custom of sewing a black cloth or crepe band on the left coat-sleeve
is not to be commended.

The Box Tunnel.

BY CHARLES READE.

Charles Reade was born at Ipsden, England, June 8, 1814, and
died in London, April 11, 1884. After leaving Oxford in 1835
he studied law and was called to the bar in 1843. Soon
afterward he resolved to devote himself to literature. He
published his first novel in 1852. This was "Peg
Woffington," and its success was so unqualified that if the
author had any doubts concerning his wisdom in changing his
profession they were soon dispelled. Among his subsequent
novels were "It Is Never Too Late to Mend," "The Cloister
and the Hearth," "Hard Cash," "Foul Play," "Put Yourself in
His Place," and "A Terrible Temptation."

Most of the novels of Charles Reade had to do with certain
social and legal abuses then existing in England, and they
did much to effect a pronounced improvement in the
conditions attacked.

"The Box Tunnel," which appears herewith, is a short story
written in 1857. It is an excellent specimen of that
peculiar quality of humor for which its gifted author was
famous.

The 10.15 train glided from Paddington, May 7, 1847. In the left
compartment of a certain first-class carriage were four passengers; of
these, two were worth description. The lady had a smooth, white, delicate
brow, strongly marked eyebrows, long lashes, eyes that seemed to change
color, and a good-sized, delicious mouth, with teeth as white as milk. A
man could not see her nose for her eyes and mouth; her own sex could and
would have told us some nonsense about it. She wore an unpretending
grayish dress buttoned to the throat with lozenge-shap