The Author to His Hostess
(AN OPEN LETTER)
[Very few English men of letters enjoy a desirable social position. To be sure, they are frequently invited to functions, where they are treated with insistent affability by persons belonging to the higher classes; but the sort of position to be obtained in this way is insecure, and unpleasant to any save those of adamantine cheek.—Current Magazine.]
Dear Lady,—When you bade me come
To grace your crowded “Kettledrum,”
And mingle in the best society;
When Melba sang, and Elman played,
And waiters handed lemonade
(Tempering music with sobriety),
I never had the least suspicion