Affectua is pretty and accomplished, and, two years ago, awakened goodwill
in all who saw her. Latterly, however, she has exchanged her simple and
natural manners for those which are plainly artificial and affected. What a
pity these ladies cannot "let well enough alone!"

But I must stop, or my reader may exclaim: Enough--practice thy own
precept--and let well enough alone.

* * * * *

SUSAN CLIFTON; OR, THE CITY AND THE COUNTRY.

BY PROFESSOR ALDEN.

CHAPTER I.

On a pleasant afternoon in August, two gentlemen were sitting in the shade
of a large walnut tree which stood in front of an ancient, yet neat and
comfortable farmhouse. Perhaps it would be more in accordance with modern
usage to say that a gentleman and a man were sitting there; for the one was
clothed in the finest broadcloth, the other in ordinary homespun. They had
just returned from a walk over the farm, which had been the scene of their
early amusements and labors.

"I don't know," said he of the broadcloth coat, "but that you made the
better choice, after all. You have time to be happy; you have a quiet that
I know nothing about--in truth, I should not know how to enjoy it if I had
it."

"The lack of it, then," replied his brother, "can be no hardship. I have