When a man is in love with one woman in a family, it is astonishing how fond he becomes of every person connected with it.

Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?

Who has not seen how women bully women? What tortures have men to endure compared to those daily repeated shafts of scorn and cruelty with which poor women are riddled by the tyrants of their sex?

Oh, those women! They nurse and cuddle their presentiments, and make darlings of their ugliest thoughts.

Which of us that is thirty years old has not had its Pompeii? Deep under ashes lies the life of youth--the careless sport, the pleasure and the passion, the darling joy.

Why do they always put mud into coffee on board steamers? Why does the tea generally taste of boiled boots?

We are most of us very lonely in this world; you who have any who love you, cling to them and thank God.