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 upon the rock which she had left, looked about at the land upon which “Sans Souci” was soon to stand, and strove to appreciate what would have been my sensations had I been doomed to share it with a wife.

Primarily, as a bachelor, I was able to indulge in many little luxuries which would have been manifestly impossible if I had been under the necessity of supplying some one with pin-money; and I felt that these I should enjoy the more for thinking to what uses married men are compelled to apply their cost. Never, I thought, would I use my telephone, for example, without a sense of exultation in the knowledge that its annual rental only approximated the cost of an Easter bonnet.

A wife! I saw myself paying for Parisian dresses, loaded with flounces, and gores, and chiffon, and selvages, and passementerie — whatever that maybe! — and such-like frippery. I saw myself listening to curtain-lectures. In accuracy’s name, why “curtain”? —