ale, and its contents were of no
importance to any one save Borsdale.

"Now, do you know," said Philip Borsdale, "I am beginning to think you
the most sensible man of my acquaintance! Oh, yes, beyond doubt it is
an endurable sun-nurtured world--just as it stands. It makes it doubly
odd that Dr. Herrick should have chosen always to

'Write of groves, and twilights, and to sing
The court of Mab, and of the Fairy King,
And write of Hell.'"

Sir Thomas touched his arm, protestingly. "Ah, but you have forgotten
what follows, Philip--

'I sing, and ever shall,
Of Heaven,--and hope to have it after all.'"

"Well! I cry Amen," said Borsdale. "But I wish I could forget the old
man's face."

"Oh, and I also," Sir Thomas said. "And I cry Amen with far more
heartiness, my lad, because I, too, once dreamed of--of Corinna, shall
we say?"

OLIVIA'S POTTAGE

"_Mr. Wycherley was naturally modest until King Charles' court, that
late disgrace to our times, corrupted him. He then gave himself up to
all sorts of extravagances and to the wildest frolics that a wanton wit
could devise. . . . Never was so much ill-nature in a pen as in his,
joined with so much good nature as was in himself, even to excess; for
he was bountiful, even to run himself into difficulties, and charitable
even to a fault. It was not that he was free from the failings of
humanity, but he had the tenderness of it, too, which made everybody
excuse whom everybody loved; and even the asperity of his verses seems
to have been forgiven._"

I the Plain Dealer am to act to-day.

* * * * * *

Now, you shrewd judges, who the boxes sway,
Leading the ladies' hearts and sense astray,
And for their sakes, see all and hear no play;
Correct your cravats, foretops, lock behind:
The dress and breeding of the play ne'er mind;
For the coarse dauber of the coming scenes
To follow life and nature only means,
Displays you as you are, makes his fine woman
A mercenary jilt and true to no man,
Shows men of wit and pleasure of the age
Are as dull rogues as ever cumber'd stage.

WILLIAM WYCHERLEY.--_Prologue to The Plain Dealer_.

OLIVIA'S POTTAGE

It was in the May of 1680 that Mr. William Wycherley went into the
country to marry the famed heiress, Mistress Araminta Vining, as he had
previously settled with her father, and found her to his vast relief a
very personable girl.