is hands he held and fingered some unaccountable object of a
nondescript shape; and he had an unpleasant fixed smile, which he
seemed to turn on us, as though he knew a secret connected with the
garden which he might not reveal, and which if revealed would fill the
hearers with a secret horror. I do not think that I have often seen a
figure which affected me so disagreeably. He seemed to be saying that
within this bright and fragrant place lay some tainted mystery which it
were ill to tamper with. It was as though we opened a door out of some
stately corridor, and found a strange, beast-like thing running to and
fro in a noble room.

Well, I do not know! But it seems to me a type of many things, and I
doubt not that the wise-hearted patrician, the former owner, who laid
out the garden and set the statue in its place, did so with a purpose.
It is for us to see that there lies no taint behind our pleasures; but
even if this be not the message, the heart of the mystery, may not the
figure stand perhaps for the end, the bitter end, which lies ahead of
all, when the lip is silent and the eye shut, and the heart is stilled
at last?

The quiet figure with its secret, wicked smile, somehow slurred for me
the sunshine and the pleasant flowers, and I was glad when we turned
away.--Ever yours,

T. B.

UPTON,
June 11, 1904.

DEAR HERBERT,--Yes, I am sure you are right. The thing I get more and
more impatient of every year is conventionality in every form. It is
rather foolish, I am well aware, to be impatient about anything; and
great conventionality of mind is not inconsistent with entire
sincerity, for the simple reason that conventionality is what
ninety-nine hundredths of the human race enjoy. Most people have no
wish to make up their own minds about anything; they do not care to
know what they like or why they like it. This is often the outcome of a
deep-seated modesty. The ordinary person says to himself, "Who am I
that I should set up a standard? If all the people that I know like
certain occupations and certain amusements, they are probably right,
and I will try to like them too." I don't mean that this feeling is
often put into words, but it is there; and there is for most people an
immense power in habit. People grow to like what they do, and seldom
inquire if they really like it, or why they like it.

Of course, to a certain extent, conventionality is a useful, peaceful
thing. I am not here recommending