An Old, Old Story.

aud though I clo not suppose that people will not marry , I don ' t see the necessity myself , and I don ' t believe in loA'e , much less in humdrum affection . The writer of this Old , Old Story is clearly a man of limited experience and retrograde sensibilities . There is no use in giving us a chronicle of

common every-day life , and domestic manners , the insipid philanderings of a sublimated gander and an ethereal goose . AVe have outlived the time Avhen the role of the novel writer Avas to tell of those AVIIO sought ' to suckle fools , and chronicle

small beer . ' I believe in the sensational , the Aveird , the emotional , and the grotesque . I don't myself credit anything , and therefore I think that all that is left us to realize and to recount , are the reveries of emancipated free thought , the marvels

of a lucrative spiritualism , the license of easy manners , and the amiability of accommodating morals ! For this " bread and butter" nonsense of unsophisticated nature , simple life , fireside attractions , home virtues and family affection—I despise them , and denounce them one and all I . "

Well done Professor Cockroach ! Happily for herself , his niece Julia does " not see it , " neither do I . But I mention this " en passant , " to show what are the difficulties and views Avhich the homely narrator of to-day has to face and fear . We live in such a sensational

age , and are so taken up with excited news of this or that , Ave so like the marvellous , the unlikely , the unusual , and the novel , that ours is both an unnatural and morbid state of taste and temperament . Unless our heroes are villains , they cease

to be heroes to us . Unless our heroines are monsters in petticoats , they hardly interest us at all . If Theodore commits bigamy , forgery , perjury , and runs away at last Avith another man ' s Avife , Theodore seems to attract rather than to repulseto

, please , rather than to offend . As Dr . Bayly says , "Oh , temporal Oh , mores !" If Emma Mary marries a " ticket of leave , " or elopes with a groom-boy , she has done something worthy of note , and our literature to-day , Avhich comes before the

young in hopeless profusion and ostentatious presumption , is full of impossible scenes , ridiculous episodes , baneful morals , and pernicious examples . And therefore ,

AA'hen 1 drew out the outline of the " Old , Old Story , " I determined to make it as common-place , as homely , as simple , as realistic as possible . I Avas anxious that those for Avhom I was Avriting might at any rate understand that neither gold nor dross , nor A'icious habits , nor bad manners ,

nor fast life , nor " manages cle convenance , " could make any one happy here , but that the real secret of human felicity , especiall y in matrimony , ( if matrimony brings happiness , Avhich some may doubt ) , Avas to be sought for in mutual affection , congenial tastes , personal sympathy , and individual devotion .

The characters I have drawn , however feebly , lnwe lived and are living in the flesh . They are those Avith whom we can hourly converse and pleasantly " cotton . " There is nothing unreal and I fear nothing artistic about them . If , like the limner , I

have given a touch here and there , if I have filled in foreground , and sky , and shading ; if 1 . have put on a little colour , or used a little A-arnish , it is only because I Avas anxious that the picture I sought to present to your noticekindly readers mine

, , might , if possible , be pleasant to the sight , attractive to lookers on , and good for moral digestion . Beyond that I claim no merit and ask for no praise . And if at the close I venture to say " Plaudite omnes , " it is only becauselike other mortalsthe

, , incense of praise is sweet to one ' s olfactories , and the pleasant words of a kindly criticism are soothing and satisfactory to one ' s " amour propre , " and one psychological system , After the last scene at the Cedars

, events marched rapidly , and the " Old , Old Story" approached its denouement . Mr . Mainwarhig and Lucy took things very quietly , and like sensible people made no fuss , and did not ju'oclaim themselves to the world as a pair of sublunary and

engaged "spoons . " Nothing is so annoying to me , and , as T think , so " gemeiu" as to hear or see engaged couples parading themselves before everybodv as " ( fauces aud fisuiw . es / ' That

is a thing which " any fellar with brains in his head , as young Balasso says , " can understand , " and can find out , and does not require Orlando to avow , or Emmelina to proclaim . No , it is part of that unblushing publicity of the day which