Marie was one of those unfortunately constituted mortals, in whose eyes whatever is lost and gone assumes a value which it never had in possession. Whatever she had she seemed to survey only to pick flaws in it; but once fairly away, there was no end to her valuation of it. DRED. [Sidenote: Speaking as a friend.] “Now, Miss Nina, I want to speak as a friend.” “No, you sha’n’t; it is just what people say when they are going to say something disagreeable. I told Clayton, once for all, that I wouldn’t have him speak as a friend to me.” * * * * * [Sidenote: ’Scuses.] “Ah, lots of ’scuses I keeps! I tell you now, ’scuses is excellent things. Why, ’scuses is like dis yer grease dat keeps de wheels from screaking. Lord bless you, de whole world turns ’round on ’scuses. Whar de world be if everybody was such fools to tell de raal reason for everyting they are gwine for to do, or ain’t gwine for to!” * * * * * [Sidenote: Use of a chatterbox.] Every kind of creature has its uses, and there are times when a lively, unthinking chatterbox is a perfect godsend. Those unperceiving people who never notice the embarrassment of others, and who walk with the greatest facility into the gaps of conversation, simply because they have no perception of any difficulty there, have their hour; and Nina felt positively grateful to Mr. Carson for the continuous and cheerful rattle which had so annoyed her the day before. * * * * * [Sidenote: Good and evil inseparable.] It is our fatality that everything that does good must do harm. It is the condition of our poor, imperfect life here. * * * * * [Sidenote: “Streaked men.”] “But den, you see, honey, der’s some folks der’s _two_ men in ’em,—one is a good one, and t’oder is very bad. Wal, dis yer was jest dat sort.... He was one of dese yer streaked men, dat has drefful ugly streaks; and, some of dem times, de Lord only knows what he won’t do.” * * * * * [Sidenote: First steps.] There is something in the first essay of a young man, in any profession, like the first launching of a ship, which has a never-ceasing hold on human sympathies. * * * * * [Sidenote: From different standpoints.] There is no study in human nature more interesting than the aspects of the same subject seen in the points of view of different characters. One might almost imagine that there were no such thing as absolute truth, since a change of situation or temperament is capable of changing the whole force of an argument. * * * * * [Sidenote: Fine natures perverted.] As good wine makes the strongest vinegar, so fine nature perverted makes the worst vice. SUNNY MEMORIES OF FOREIGN LANDS. [Sidenote: Lost confidence.]