"Sad stuff it is, too, most of it," the old maid declared. "When I was a girl the newspapers were violent enough, and the editors abused each other like pickpockets, and sometimes they called each other out, and sometimes somebody else horsewhipped them. But the papers then weren't as silly and as cheap and as trivial as the papers are now. It seems as though the editors to-day had a profound contempt for their readers, and thought anything was good enough for them. Why, I had a letter from a newspaper last week--a printed form it was, too--stating that they were 'desirous of obtaining full and correct information on Society Matters, and would appreciate the kindness if Miss Marlenspuyk would forward to the Society Editor any information regarding entertainments she may purpose giving during the coming winter, and the Society Editor will also be happy to arrange for a full report when desired.' Was there ever such impudence? To ask me to describe my own dinners, and to give a list of my guests! As though any lady would do a thing like that!" "There are ladies who do," ventured Miss Peters. "Then they are not what you and I would call ladies, my child," returned Miss Marlenspuyk. The face of the Southern girl flushed suddenly, and she bit her lip in embarrassment. Then she mustered up courage to ask, "I suppose you do not read the _Daily Dial_, Miss Marlenspuyk?" "I tried it for a fortnight once," the old maid answered. "They told me it had the most news, and all that. But I had to give it up. Nobody that I knew ever died in the _Dial_. My friends all died in the _Gotham Gazette_." "The _Gazette_ has a larger family circulation," admitted the younger woman. "Besides," Miss Marlenspuyk continued, "I could not stand the vulgarity of the _Dial_. I'm an old woman now, and I've seen a great deal of the world, but the _Dial_ was too much for me. It seemed to be written down to the taste of the half-naked inhabitants of an African kraal." "Oh," protested the other, "do you really think it is as bad as that?" "Indeed I do," the old maid affirmed. "It's worse than that, because the poor negroes wouldn't know better. And what was most offensive, perhaps, in the _Dial_ was the unwholesome knowingness of it." "I see what you mean," said Miss Peters, and again the color rose in her cheeks. "There was that Lightfoot divorce case," Miss Marlenspuyk went on. "The way the _Dial_ dwelt on that was unspeakable. I'm willing to allow that Mrs. Lightfoot was not exactly a nice person; I'll admit that she may have been divorced more times than she had been married--" "That's admitting a good deal!" said the young woman, as the elder paused. "But it is going altogether too far to say that, like Cleopatra, she had the manners of a kitten and the morals of a cat--isn't it?" Miss Peters made no response. Her eyes were fixed on the carpet, and her face was redder than ever. "Of course it isn't likely you saw the article I mean," the old maid continued.