"In these instances I have only hinted at the hardships endured by authors. I mention them not to excite your sympathy for the guild--although none are more deserving of it--but to show you plainly some of the lions in the way of the literary aspirant; and I regret that I have not in my audience the ten thousand brave, capable young men and women in our country who are looking forward to a literary career--some in the hope of winning distinction, and some as a profession to be used in bread-winning. Certainly, nothing will justify man or woman in embarking in it but the possession of the true _afflatus_, the rich gift of imagination, constructive power and expression which we call literary genius." Happy is the preacher who sees the seed he sows fall into good ground! Not many days after our talk, happening to glance into the parlor, I saw Sue in suspicious proximity to Fred Alston, the young bank-cashier, and only last night she blushingly announced her engagement to him, assuring me that she was content to shine in a literary way only in the home-circle. Fred is a good fellow, besides being desperately in love with her, and, as he hasn't a particle of literary talent himself, will set all the more store by Sue's. C. B. T. PEOPLE'S HOUSES: A DIALOGUE. MRS. PHILIP MARKHAM. PHILIP MARKHAM. MRS. FRANK BEVERLY. FRANK BEVERLY. _Frank Beverly._ Now that I have a house of my own to furnish, I find that I have a strong reaction of taste in favor of the things I was used to as a boy. It is all very well to go into other people's rooms and see fantasies in sage and olive-greens and peacock-blues--to admire stained floors and French Turkey rugs, tiles and dadoes, decorated curtains and portières (which latter invention, by the way, I call a mere nuisance, always in the way, letting in draughts and depriving you of the comfort of closed doors). So I tell Ethel that for my part I don't want any of these things. _Mrs. Beverly._ What Frank really wants he does not know himself: he is simply too bigoted and old-fashioned to move with the new currents, but all the time has nothing better to propose. We have bought the house, and have gone twice to look at it. I know exactly what would suit me. I should like to have it done up with inlaid floors and wainscotings--tiles in the fire-places, with brass fenders and andirons. The dining-room should be in oak and brown and gold--Queen Anne's style--the parlors in blue and olives, and the bedrooms in chintzes. _Mrs. Markham._ That would be perfectly lovely. One may always be certain of your taste, Ethel. _Philip Markham._ I confess I don't see any marvellous display of taste in furnishing rooms like everybody else's. _Mrs. B._ But the general styles now-a-days are so thoroughly artistic!