76 AN ANGLER'S BASKET. 



gentle, and all the rest of it, and going on as you do. I wonder 

 if all the men go home smelling so dreadfully of cigars. I 

 find from some of the menus Frank has brought home and 

 left about (he generally locks them up carefully) you began 

 with native oysters and went on to turtle soup, you wicked 

 wretches ! Why, once not long since when he condescended to 

 let me have a little dinner party at home, just mother and 

 three or four intimate friends, I prepared a pleasant surprise 

 for him, as I thought, and got some real turtle soup. The 

 purveyor sent to London for it and charged me a guinea for 

 a quart, and Frank went on like a madman, I declare. After 

 they had all gone he carried on scandalously ; wanted to know 

 if I thought he was MADE of money, and walked out of the 

 room slamming the door behind him almost enough to bring" 

 the globes off the chandelier. And yet you see he can go and 

 bathe in turtle for anything I know, and when I attempt to 

 be generous, what a bother there is ; wanted to know, indeed, 

 if mother would have given him turtle soup, and so on, just as 

 if poor old mother had had anything to do with it. I have 

 no doubt there are other wives whose opinions on these goings 

 on are quite as strong as mine if they would only speak out. 

 Going fishing a whole day, too, for a paltry little grayling in. 

 such wintry weather as we have been having, and coming 

 home looking starved to death, and with such a dreadful cough 

 as he has. Of course he said he was not a bit cold, quite warm, 

 and all the rest of it. I would just have told him my mind 

 that night but that he had promised me a new sealskin, and 

 he flies into such tempers about nothing. But that is just 

 the way of all you men ; you are all selfish together. 

 However, I have had my say, not that I suppose it will do 

 any good, but it is a comfort to say it at any rate. 



HARRIET E ." 



