TEA-TABLE TALK




CHAPTER I



"They are very pretty, some of them," said the Woman of the World;
"not the sort of letters I should have written myself."

"I should like to see a love-letter of yours," interrupted the Minor
Poet.

"It is very kind of you to say so," replied the Woman of the World.
"It never occurred to me that you would care for one."

"It is what I have always maintained," retorted the Minor Poet; "you
have never really understood me."

"I believe a volume of assorted love-letters would sell well," said
the Girton Girl; "written by the same hand, if you like, but to
different correspondents at different periods. To the same person
one is bound, more or less, to repeat oneself."

"Or from different lovers to the same correspondent," suggested the
Philosopher. "It would be interesting to observe the response of
various temperaments exposed to an unvaried influence. It would
throw light on the vexed question whether the qualities that adorn