DEAR SIR,--May I draw your attention to a series of domestic occurrences which illustrate the distressing and increasing tendency of this _fin-de-siècle_ age? I say _fin-de-siècle_ because as it has got to come in somehow, it may as well be said at once. At breakfast yesterday the bacon was wretchedly cooked. My wife said, "It's the fault of the New Cook," which was all the satisfaction or explanation that I got. I found my study disguised in an apparent tidiness, achieved at the cost of a complete confusion of my papers, which had been tidied away in a manner that completely defied detection. My wife only answered, "Oh, it's that New Housemaid." That night we went to the theatre. The name of the play was _The New Woman_. Then I understood the true inwardness of all my previous experiences. The moral is so clear that I do not propose to draw any. _The Cedars, Sept. 29._ NOTTA NEWMAN. * * * * * LETTERS FROM A DÉBUTANTE. DEAREST MARJORIE,--It is really quite time you gave me some more of your valuable advice. Thanks to you, I was not such an utter failure in my first season as I expected. After a month at home (my people _loathe_ the new way I do my hair, and it seemed, I am ashamed to say, a _little_ dull there), I have come to stay again with the LYON TAYMERS at their country house. [Illustration: ] You remember I refused the man who did conjuring tricks? He has written to me since to say he sees now how right I was--rather crushing! I also fully _intended_ to refuse Captain MASHINGTON. But he went to Dinard without giving me the opportunity, and I hear he has been playing tennis there the _whole_ day with Mrs. LORNE HOPPER. I am sure I hope he enjoyed it. She is what you or I would consider rather old, but is said to be perfectly charming, and of course looks fifteen years younger than her youngest daughter.