I have no more to say on the choice of a husband. It is quite the simplest thing that a young girl has to learn,--you must find a quite colourless person, and flatter him a little; his vanity will do the rest. And when you are married to him, you will find him much easier to tolerate than a man who has any strong characteristic. Do not get into the habit of thinking marriage important; it is only important in so far as it affects externals; it need not touch the interior of your life. I have received several letters. ELLA has had poetry sent to her by her _fiancé_, and wishes to know if this would justify her in breaking the engagement. I think not. She can never be quite certain that it is the man's own make; and, besides, plenty of men are like that during the engagement period, but never suffer from it afterwards. The other letters must be answered privately. * * * * * "THE DEADLY CIGARETTE." [Illustration] Have you heard the Yankee threat to suppress the Cigarette? Ten dollars tax per thousand--as the French would say, _par mille_-- Is the scheme proposed, forsooth, to protect the Yankee youth From poisons just discovered in his _papier pur fil_! Such things might well have been in staring emerald green, Or even in the paler tint that's christened "_Eau-de-Nil_," But it simply makes one sick to imagine arsenic Is lurking in the spotless white of _papier pur fil_! Strange the smoking French survive! Surely none should be alive; Fair France should be one mighty _morgue_ from Biarritz to Lille, If there's also phosphorus, bringing deadly loss for us, In Hygiene's new victim, luckless _papier pur fil_. Yet some Frenchmen live to tell they are feeling pretty well; From dozing _Concierge_ at home to marching _Garde Mobile_, You might safely bet your boots that, with loud derisive hoots, They'd scout the thought of poison in their _papier pur fil_. Then how foolish to conclude that, because they hurt the dude, Smoking all day in the country, half the night as well _en ville_, After dinner Cigarettes, two or three, mean paying debts Of nature, or mean going mad, from _papier pur fil_! * * * * * VANS DE LUXE. SIR,--I am going to start a Caravan! It's all the go now, and nothing like it for fresh air and seeing out-of-the-way country places. What's the good of _Hamlet_ with all the hamlets left out, eh? We shall sleep in bunks, and have six horses to pull us up any _Bunker's Hill_ we may come to. I intend doing the thing in style, like the Duke of NEWCASTLE and Dr. GORDON STABLES, No gipsying for yours truly! I've been calculating how many people I shall want, and I don't think I can get on comfortably without all the following (they'll be _my_ following, d'ye see?):--