Sir:—

Circumstances that have just come to my knowledge compel me, as a matter of duty, to break off the engagement between my daughter and yourself. I have desired her to hold no further communication with you, and I have been sufficiently explicit to convince her how unworthy you are of her affection and esteem. It is unnecessary for me to give you the reasons which have induced me to form this judgment, and I only add that nothing you can say will alter my determination.

Felix Dusenbury.

Edward Renwick, Esq.

PART IV
SOCIAL INTERCOURSE

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

The act of writing a social letter is to many people a task of some little difficulty from various points of view. They are at a loss as to the most fitting manner in which to express that which they have to communicate, and one, two, and three sheets of note paper often bear witness to their attempts and failures. Either at the commencement or at the finish, it strikes them that something is not as it should be, or, right in the middle, they come to a deadlock altogether. Others, again, have not the intelligence to discover for themselves that their letter is not up to the regulation standard of notes in general, and have to face criticism and even ridicule. In writing letters, it is curious to observe how closely certain sets of words and expressions are followed by the generality of people; they accept them as models, and adhere to them. But phrases in letter writing change, as everything else changes, and what was strictly polite and proper to write under given circumstances some twenty or thirty years ago is not quite the thing to say to-day.

To commence a letter to a comparative stranger, or to a person with whom the writer is but slightly acquainted, is the first difficulty to overcome. Shall it be a letter or a note, written in the first or in the third person? This is to many a perplexing question, and yet there need be no doubt on this point, as there are safe rules for every one's guidance in such matters. In all communications with strangers, it would be correct to write in the third person. A very slight acquaintance, however, would authorize a letter being written in the first person if it were to be of any length.