were there, and that they lived, not played their parts. You were right, and I suppose you hold the opinion still; but this is what I want to know—how often is it that one gets the chance to live? Most people would answer, once at least, in a lifetime; and there it is that I totally disagree with them. Mine is a small stage from which to preach, but I have seen as many people as some who live on a larger one, and I have observed them and their conditions carefully. And, because of my profession, the people I have seen have been of all sorts and conditions, and the conclusion I have come to is, that most lives are filled with emptiness—with a dead, dull uneventfulness. Action is for the favoured few; culture for a great many more, if they choose to avail themselves of it, which usually they don’t; monotony for most. ‘That brings me back to my own life, and its monotony. Let me try to collect a little gossip for you, and free myself from the reproach of having sent an essay, unredeemed by a single touch of narrative. ‘Otho Askam is away. He has scarcely been at Thorsgarth since the new year. Just now he is busied, they say, about this precious horse which is to run this precious race. His sister’s house, too, is empty just now. She was persuaded, Mrs. Johnson tells me, to go and see her friends in London for a time; but is coming back before Whitsuntide, as, in the kindness of her heart she is going to feast some little ragged wretches out of Bridge Street, whom she has taken under her wing. But it is not Whitsuntide yet. It falls near the end of May this year. I feel in a communicative humour to-night, so I will tell you a secret. My life is monotonous to me, as I believe I have set forth already at some length; and I wish with all my heart that Eleanor Askam had not a fortune of twelve hundred a year; for if she had nothing at all, I would humbly ask her if she would condescend to relieve that monotony of my life. I should also have the feeling that I could in a measure pay her back in kind, by alleviating, as I would, some of the sorrow that darkens hers.