nt to do is put up in her room one or two good
prints representing actual men who were so delightful in their day that
all the young men she is likely to see now will seem tepid and
prehensile. Thus she will become disgusted with the present generation
of youths and there will be some chance of her really putting her mind
on the book business."

Accordingly he had spent some time in going through a bin where he kept
photos and drawings of authors that the publishers' "publicity men"
were always showering upon him. After some thought he discarded
promising engravings of Harold Bell Wright and Stephen Leacock, and
chose pictures of Shelley, Anthony Trollope, Robert Louis Stevenson,
and Robert Burns. Then, after further meditation, he decided that
neither Shelley nor Burns would quite do for a young girl's room, and
set them aside in favour of a portrait of Samuel Butler. To these he
added a framed text that he was very fond of and had hung over his own
desk. He had once clipped it from a copy of Life and found much
pleasure in it. It runs thus:

ON THE RETURN OF A BOOK
LENT TO A FRIEND

I GIVE humble and hearty thanks for the safe return of this book which
having endured the perils of my friend's bookcase, and the bookcases of
my friend's friends, now returns to me in reasonably good condition.

I GIVE humble and hearty thanks that my friend did not see fit to give
this book to his infant as a plaything, nor use it as an ash-tray for
his burning cigar, nor as a teething-ring for his mastiff.

WHEN I lent this book I deemed it as lost: I was resigned to the
bitterness of the long parting: I never thought to look upon its pages
again.

BUT NOW that my book is come back to me, I rejoice and am exceeding
glad! Bring hither the fatted morocco and let us rebind the volume and
set it on the shelf of honour: for this my book was lent, and is
returned again.

PRESENTLY, therefore, I may return some of the books that I myself have
borrowed.

"There!" he thought. "That will convey to her the first element of
book morality."

These decorations having been displayed on the walls, he bethought
himself of the books that should stand on the bedside shelf.

This is a question that admits of the utmost nicety of discussion.
Some authorities hold that the proper books for a guest-room are of a
soporific quality that will induce swift and painless repose. This
school