"Who admires domestic women now? Tell an English _creve_ that Miss Maria is clever at a custard, and he will sneer at her. No. She must be witty, pert; able to give him as good as he sends, as people say. Young Dumas has done a very great deal of this harm; and he has made a fortune by it. He has brought the Casino into the drawing-room, given _ces dames_ a position in society, and made hundreds of young men ruin themselves for the glory of being seen talking to a Cora Pearl. _Now_ what do you think he has done. He has actually brought out a complete edition of his pieces, with a preface, in which, Papa tells me, he plays the moralist. He has unfolded all the vice--crowded the theatres to see a bad woman in a consumption--painted the _demi-monde--with a purpose_! All the world has laboured under the idea that the purpose was piles of gold. But now, the locker being full, and the key turned, and in the young gentleman's pocket, he dares to put himself in the robe of a professor, to say it was not the money he cared about--it was the lesson. He is a reformer--a worshipper of virtue! We shall have the author of _Jack Sheppard_ start as a penologist soon. My dear, the cowardice of men when dealing with poor women is bad enough; but it is not by half so repulsive as their hypocrisy. Ugh! "Any news of the handsome Mr. Daker? It strikes me, dear Emmy, 'Uncle Sharp' didn't send him up from Maidstone with a letter of introduction to his niece for nothing. "Your affectionate friend, "CARRIE C." CHAPTER VIII. "OH, YES!" AND "ALL RIGHT!" Lucy was privileged to read the following:-- _Miss Carrie Cockayne to Miss Emily Sharp._ "Rue Millevoye, Paris.