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but there is another rock in the entertaining channel. Ladies abound in Green Street; but where is there a single eligible being whom one can ask to meet them? It is a charming village, but this is the fatal drawback. Every paradise has its peculiar trial, and we, alas! are not exempt. I had almost written that the trouble was that we had no serpent; it is, at all events, a sad truth that we have no men. Of course we have plenty of men in the abstract, and very pleasant, exemplary men, too. As far as regards the ordinary duties of life, men may be found in the ranks of husbands, fathers, brothers, and uncles, that any place would be proud of; but there are literally no men to marry. (Of course there is always Arthur Campbell, but he is an outsider, and we can’t ask him every time.)

“‘Why should we have a party at all?’ I inquired at last, with the air of Columbus crushing his eggshell.

“‘Why, indeed!’ replied Clare, scathingly. ‘Why does the earth turn round from west to east, or east to west, whichever it is? Why does washing-day always fall on a Monday, and throw a gloom over whole families ever since the creation of the world? Why do the wrong people always accept, and the right people have to go into mourning or get an attack of chicken-