V. THE UNSATISFACTORINESS OF UNFRIENDLY CRITICISM 296 VI. THE FICKLENESS OF AGE 306 VII. THE RENEWAL OF INSPIRATION 316 VIII. THE SUMMER SOJOURN OF FLORINDO AND LINDORA 326 IX. TO HAVE THE HONOR OF MEETING 338 X. A DAY AT BRONX PARK 350 ILLUSTRATIONS AT THE OPERA _Frontispiece_ FIFTH AVENUE AT THIRTY-FOURTH STREET _Facing_ p. 88 FIFTH AVENUE FROM THE TOP OF A MOTOR-BUS " 94 CHARLES EMBANKMENT, BELOW HARVARD BRIDGE " 120 THE MALL, CENTRAL PARK " 156 BROADWAY AT NIGHT " 256 ELECTION-NIGHT CROWDS " 260 ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, BRONX PARK " 352 IMAGINARY INTERVIEWS I THE RESTORATION OF THE EASY CHAIR BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION It is not generally known that after forty-two years of constant use the aged and honored movable which now again finds itself put back in its old place in the rear of _Harper's Magazine_ was stored in the warehouse of a certain safety-deposit company, in the winter of 1892. The event which had then vacated the chair is still so near as to be full of a pathos tenderly personal to all readers of that magazine, and may not be lightly mentioned in any travesty of the facts by one who was thought of for the empty place. He, before putting on the mask and mimic editorial robes--for it was never the real editor who sat in the Easy Chair, except for that brief hour when he took it to pay his deep-thought and deep-felt tribute to its last occupant--stood with bowed face and uncovered head in that bravest and gentlest presence which, while it abode with us here, men knew as George William Curtis.