ted from the
Liberal Party. The great bulk of the newspaper-reading public will be
puzzled by your extinction in the midst of our party's triumph. But
then, the great mass of the newspaper-reading public has not met you.
I have. You will probably not remember me. You are the sort of man who
would not remember anybody who might not be of some definite use to him.
Such, at least, was one of the impressions you made on me when I met
you last summer at a dinner given by our friends the Pelhams. Among the
other things in you that struck me were the blatant pomposity of your
manner, your appalling flow of cheap platitudes, and your hoggish lack
of ideas. It is such men as you that lower the tone of public life. And
I am sure that in writing to you thus I am but expressing what is
felt, without distinction of party, by all who sat with you in the late
Parliament.

The one person in whose behalf I regret your withdrawal into private
life is your wife, whom I had the pleasure of taking in to the aforesaid
dinner. It was evident to me that she was a woman whose spirit
was well-nigh broken by her conjunction with you. Such remnants of
cheerfulness as were in her I attributed to the Parliamentary duties
which kept you out of her sight for so very many hours daily. I do not
like to think of the fate to which the free and independent electors of
West Odgetown have just condemned her. Only, remember this: chattel
of yours though she is, and timid and humble, she despises you in
her heart. I am, dear Mr. Pobsby-Burford, Yours very truly, HAROLD
THISTLAKE.

LETTER FROM YOUNG LADY IN ANSWER TO INVITATION FROM OLD SCHOOLMISTRESS.

MY DEAR MISS PRICE, How awfully sweet of you to ask me to stay with you
for a few days but how can you think I may have forgotten you for of
course I think of you so very often and of the three ears I spent at
your school because it is such a joy not to be there any longer and if
one is at all down it bucks one up derectly to remember that thats all
over atanyrate and that one has enough food to nurrish one and not that
awful monottany of life and not the petty fogging daily tirrany you went
in for and I can imagin no greater thrill and luxury in a way than to
come and see the whole dismal grind still going on but without me being
in it but this would be rather beastly of me wouldn't it so please dear
Miss Price dont expect me and do excuse mistakes of English Composition
and Spelling and etcetra in your af