going citizens of some large town; and, as tide is now up, you might safely bet that they have wives and children disporting in the sea. Note the frock coat and light cap of the one and the tight boots of the other-symptoms, plain, of innocence. Still they are strong and eager; and the stouter gentlemanhe with the light cap and jolly face -is gloriously triumphant, while the other is grimly receiving counsel from his caddy, and bent on retrieving-but, alas! not to-day. And sorely will he be badgered at the family dinner at five o'clock.

Here you see pass a pair of dandy players, with a lady or two as spectators. There a brace of boys, who

handle their clubs with an aplomb that promises future greatness. And thus from day to day goes on the changing and lively pageant, pregnant with health and honest plea

sure.

Thus, gentle reader and future golfer, I carry you back, and place you nicely again into your reading chair, not wearied, I trust, with your little excursion into the region of golf. And in saying farewell, let me hope that by-and-by you may be walking with active steps through the links, muscles braced and club in hand; and that, blessing (as bless you must) the day you perused this article, you may include me in the benediction.

T. W.

A CIRCULAR

AUGHTERS OF EUROPE!

DAT

NATURE is great, but crinoline is greater!-yea, gramercy, too great. Perambulating bell-tents! caricatures of your sex, let me say a few words to you-let me reason, or even question you. Are you happy in your fortifications? Are you not bored with the weight of clothing? During the Illuminations how you cut the shins, blocked up the road, and otherwise disturbed the peace and happiness of thousands! Tell me how long do you intend to keep your friends away? I would willingly walk with you or drive with you; but really, as the case at present stands, I must beg to decline. I have shins as well as feelings. Let me therefore hope that you will some day see the folly of your costume, and will adopt something more graceful and rational, and not make yourselves ridiculous in the eyes of the world. Do you know that the Japanese ambassadors took crinoline back with them, thinking, very justly, that it was the most curious specimen of European folly they could take? How Moriyama laughed when he told me! Let me beg of you to consider the matter, 'do da deahs.'

How lovely you look at a bal costumé, divested of your hideous skirts!

LETTER.

how nimbly and gracefully you flit about, causing the heart of man to be glad and to smile! You appear not the same beings-and were you always so attired, I should love you even unto distraction; but now, alas! it is impossible, and I am compelled once more to fly the country, and return to far-distant lands, where crinoline hath not yet made its appearance, nor ever will, I hope. Cruel ones, thus to drive away one who returned from the East, predisposed to lay his heart at your poor feet!' but who is now once more & wanderer and a vagabond. You have broken the spell, dispelled the illusion, and driven him to despair. Yea, I will once more seek the daughters of Kathay, the maids of Chung-kwo (they who wear the breeches!); also will yet find the Musemés of Nipon, the skirtless ones, who occupy no space, whose petticoats are circumscribed.

I fly!

Adieu, women of Europe! Perchance I may once more return, with the hope of finding you lovely as now, but more approachable. Ponder my words-consider the subject-contemplate the Japanese girl in the woodcut, and weep! Farewell! Beware of exalted situations till attired otherwise; and believe in the disinterested advice of your friend, EKAKISANG

overhearing the conversation between Agnes and Edith, the latter appeared at the breakfast table. She headed it too, and I must acknowledge that the coffee was much hotter and stronger, and the table much better laid and supplied than when Emily managed it. I thought I ought to appear surprised, though I had quite expected to see her there; so I put on a smiling look, and said'Why, it is not Sunday, is it?'

Edith did not call me hypocrite,' but she looked it, as, without a word, she turned her back on me, and sat down to the table. I suppose Agnes understood that look, for she was colder than ever, and even silly Emily looked grave.

No one spoke till Nelly came down and took her usual place; then she turned to me and said

'Do you know, Mr. West, Georgy is coming home to-day.'

'And who is Georgy?' I asked.

'Why, one of us-our sister, to be sure. You can't have listened much to our conversation, Mr. West,' she added, reproachfully, or you would have heard us speak of Georgy. You know she is coming home for-that is, till she can find something else.' 'Our affairs can't interest Mr. West, Nelly dear,' said Edith.

I pretended not to hear her remark, but turned to Nelly, and paid great attention to all she said. She told me that Georgy was a year younger than Edith, but much shorter, and that she was very gay and noisy.

When I returned home in the evening, I met Edith coming out of the drawing-room, with her sleeves tucked up after the fashion of housemaids, when they are doing what they call their 'work.' She did not look at all vexed at seeing me; on the contrary, she pointed into the drawing-room, which looked very comfortable, with its drawn curtains and lighted lamp, and said—

'We shall sit in the drawing-room for the future, Mr. West, at least whilst I am at home to arrange it. I dare say you will find it more suitable to your ideas of propriety to pass the evenings there than in the parlour.'

'It is certainly more agreeable,' I replied, stiffly; still I am sorry that you should perform such uncongenial work on my account.'

'Oh! it is not only on your account. I myself detest sitting with a number of persons in a small room. It is to give myself the luxury of being a lady in the evening that I act the housemaid in the morning. A questionable display of refinement, perhaps, you will think -however, such is the case.'

She gathered up her old dress. more tightly as she spoke, and swept down stairs with the dignity of a queen.

I could not make out the change from amused contempt to bitter disdain with which she treated me. I have never lived much with women, certainly never studied their peculiarities. I know their general qualities and distinguishing marks and weaknesses as only books teach them, so if I could not understand Edith Bush I may be excused. If I had known then what I know now of womankind, I should have seen that I personally had very little to do with this change in her temper. I should have guessed that there was some constant anxiety annoying and harassing her, which, acting on a naturally fiery and unbending disposition, produced the effect I noticed.

*

I went down to the drawing-room about half-past seven, and there I found a small, imp-like looking being, dressed in a light flounced muslin with pink ribbons, comfortably lying on the sofa. As I entered she rose up with a bound, tossing her brown curly hair back, and then

looking up at me with the brightest, bird-like looking eyes, said—

'I suppose you are Mr. West.'

I told her she was quite right in her supposition, and offered to shake hands. She did put her hand in mine, but looking up at me all the time with such quizzical, daring eyes, that I felt impertinence was a family failing.

'You've come from the country, Nelly tells me,' I said, condescendingly. I had to look such a long way down before I could discover this small young lady, that I felt condescending.

'Yes, I was governess to the Henleys, in Hertfordshire; but I wasn't old enough, or grave enough, or something. So-so I've come back again.'

That imp a governess! I was silent, thinking what strange people I had dropped among; and wondering why Agnes and Emily didn't exert themselves to earn something, instead of risking that morsel of a creature on the wide world.

'I know what you are thinking,' she exclaimed, suddenly throwing herself into her former position on the sofa. Well, I will tell you why I went out as a governess. You see, papa didn't wish any of us to go away from home; but when we grew poor, Edith got so disagreeable, that she and I were always quarrelling. Well, papa said he would not live in the house with us, so Edith wanted to go out; but you see she's such a drudging, housekeeping, economical person-quite the useful, while I am only the ornamental-so the day went against me. But-here I am back again, like a bad shilling.'

I was not surprised to hear the two sisters quarrelled. To compare even their persons-Edith, tall, dignified; Georgy, tiny, saucy-looking, for all the world just like a little worrying gnat-was sufficient to tell you there could not be much harmony between the pair.

'One comfort is,' added the young lady on the sofa, 'if I've lost my situation, Edith's lost hers too; so she can't make much fuss about me.'

As Georgy spoke Edith entered the room, all trace of the housemaid having disappeared.

She smiled contemptuously as she saw how close to her sister I was sitting, and I was fool enough to get up at once.

At tea, Georgy kept up her reputation for noise and gaiety. She quizzed and imitated every member of the family she had just quittedshe uttered the most absurd nonsense, and kept us all laughing in spite of ourselves. I could see the father scarcely approved of such wild ways before me, and Edith looked annoyed; but the young lady seemed to care very little about either of them, and went on talking and laughing, quite content to be the centre of attraction.

As we were sitting there the servant girl came up to tell me a gentleman wanted to speak to me. She always announced my friends in that style. I rose-I confess rather reluctantly, for I was very comfortably ensconced in a corner of the sofa, and had only just received my second cup from Edith's hand.

Georgy exclaimed, 'Well, then, show him up.' Then, turning to Edith, she added, 'I can't say, my dear Edith; Ann's manners repay all the pains you have bestowed on her.'

'I wish you would have the kindness to mind your own business, and not give orders here,' Edith answered, fiercely. Mr. West's friends are not our friends.'

As she spoke, Smith walked in. Now this was just what my convenient' friend had often desired; but I, fond as I was of him, did not consider him exactly the man to be introduced into such a family. As I said before, Smith was a clever man, with expensive habits, pleasant manners, and empty pockets. I always believed him to be the soul of honour, so far, of course, as his notions of honour extended.

To come and pour out all his fascinations as homage at the feet of a poor pretty girl, and then, when he had won her affections, but was himself getting a little-a little-why, a fellow should not go too far, you know-certainly stood within the limits of his notion.

The idea of a poor man marrying a poor girl never entered his head as

within the limits of the tangible. He even went so far as to think it impossible for even a young girl to entertain such an idea. 'Sentiment, my dear West,' he would say to me, is insanity everywhere but in books.'

There was no help for it; my conscience was free, at any rate; and anyhow there stood Smith in the doorway, bowing in a very agreeable manner. I must go forward and introduce him.

Mr. Bush was very gracious; all the daughters, too, except Edith, looked rather pleased than otherwise. That impish little Georgy's influence had already begun to tell.

May I offer you a cup of tea?' Edith said, coldly, and Smith accepted, very much to her annoyance, for there was none left, and she was obliged to make more. After he had taken it she retired to the back room, and occupied herself in some mysterious manner. It was not with work or reading, nor exactly writing.

Meanwhile Georgy, in the front room, was perfect queen, and divided her gracious attention pretty equally between Smith and myself.

Suddenly Smith noticed the piano, and exclaimed, 'Ah-a piano! Now, Miss Georgy, I'm sure you play.'

"Hush! I should have to ask permission, and at that my pride revolts,' replied the young lady, with a shake of her small person.

Tell me of whom to ask it, and I will, with the greatest pleasure.'

Georgy pointed over her shoulder into the back room, with a little toss of her head.

"There,' she whispered; but don't say I am going to play.'

Smith laughed, and went up to Edith, and returned in an instant dangling a bunch of keys; and then Georgy sat down to the piano and jingled through a few waltzes and polkas, very much to her own satisfaction, if not to that of her hearers.

Smith pretended immense delight, and he was in the midst of some flowery compliments when Ann opened the door, and in walked Mr. Grainger.

I happened to look at Edith as Agnes rose and said, ' Ah, Mr. Grainger, how do you do?'

Another month passed. Smith came constantly, and flirted with Georgy. I found it pleasant enough now, in spite of Edith. We were always well received by the gay, imp-like little Georgy. Emily and Agnes kept a kind of neutral ground, while Mr. Bush was very civil. So, for a time, I had the best of it.

I thought Edith seemed rather more contented, though she never gave us the least encouragement. She left us very much to ourselves, and rather avoided having any wordy war. She would pass me quickly on the stairs, even if she were in her untidiest condition; and she even saw me once knock over a milk-jug, spilling the contents and breaking the jug, without making any offensive remark.

Georgy was very amusing, but distressingly lazy; and I began to distinguish between the refinement that preferred disorder to the shockingness of doing dirty work, and the refinement that, rather than exist amidst confusion, thought nothing of dirtying her hands terribly and washing them again. It was very agreeable to find Georgy always dressed in those tasty muslins, looking fresh and lady-like, with her white hands, and filbert nails, and glossy curls, giving one just an idea of perfume when she passed; but then to be received in a close, dusty, untidy room, to find the tea late when you came home tired, and the water smoky, and the things in your room unarranged, and everything at sixes and sevens-as it was once when Edith suddenly disappeared for a week from H-Terrace, and Georgy took the head of affairs-rather disgusted me with the first kind of refinement.

The young person seemed in much

better humour when she reappeared -she was even civil; but she never mentioned where she had been, or for what; and I don't think even Georgy knew, or she would have told us. Georgy was very communicative, but we could never discover from her why Edith disliked me so. She said she supposed it was natural disagreeableness, and advised us to act on the offensive. She said it was the only way with Edith: if you didn't bully her, why she would you -it was her nature. She had been born a tyrant, and she supposed she would die one; but, at any rate, she should never tyrannize over her, Georgy Bush.

CHAPTER VI.

THE PROPOSED PARTY AT NO. 3, AND WHAT EDITH THOUGHT OF IT.

While Edith was away, Georgy had been trying to work up her sisters to the giving of a small party. Quiet home life didn't at all suit this restless, vain little being, and I think she was even beginning to weary of Smith's constant attentions, and pine after a greater number of admirers.

Georgy was rather an expensive game to Smith. He bought her music, which she couldn't play, but which she said she was dying for; books, which she never read, but which she liked to display to admiring sisters; flowers from Covent Garden, which she allowed to lie about till Edith came with orderly hands to their succour; and latterly I noticed lockets, and bracelets, and brooches constantly varying about the small decked-out person of Miss Georgy.

I couldn't for a moment imagine Smith was in love; I knew his principles too well, still he seemed to be going rather far this time for a man of his age. Smith was over thirty.

I came home about four o'clock one Saturday. As I stood in the hall hanging up my coat, I could see Edith standing by the mantelshelf in the parlour examining a paper. There was a look of trouble about her face quite painful, and I thought to myself, 'Strange that all the anx

iety of the family should be shifted on to the shoulders of this girl!' Agnes was in the room with her, but she seemed to play no active part.

'I must pay it at once,' I heard Edith say. It won't do to let papa see it, with that worry about the bill on the 1st hanging over him. I think I ought to pay it, don't you, Agnes?'

You know best, dear. It seems dreadfully hard though.'

I saw her go to her desk and take out a cheque-book; then she stooped, tore out a leaf, and filled it up, saying to Agnes,' When Willie comes in send him at once. If these taxes and rates pour in, and papa's affairs don't turn a little, my poor hoard will soon dwindle.'

Mr.

She came out and we met. Smith is up stairs again,' she said. Her tone implied annoyance, so I said, 'I hope you don't hold me responsible for the follies of my friend.'

'I am not so unjust,' she answered, coldly. As she passed the drawingroom door, Emily called, 'Oh, come in, Edith; you are just the person we want!'

'Yes,' added Georgy, 'do come and tell us, like a clever thing as you are, how we must manage our party.'

'What party?'

'Oh! didn't you know? Ah! it was while you were away, papa gave us leave to have a party. A quiet one, of course, and Mr. Smith has promised to bring a quadrille friend or two; but we can't decide about the supper.'

Edith stood for an instant silent, looking with her scornful eyes full in her sister's face.

You

'Are you mad, Georgy? know such a thing is impossible.'

'When you have talked with us a little, Edith, you will see that, on the contrary, it is very possible,' Georgy said, in her gentlest tone.

'I tell you it can't be, it mustn't be,' the other replied; and she turned to walk away, but the worrying little gnat buzzed round her and intercepted her.

'Now just listen, Miss Edith; you sha'n't tyrannize over us all. We