marrying men is little in proportion to that of marriageable women, a vast number must count on being spinsters. Probably even in that case the balance of usefulness and happiness is more evenly struck than might be imagined. A woman's chances of happiness are not deteriorated but are improved by her being a really good governess, if she is to be a governess at all. Some of the sweetest specimens of girlhood and womanhood are to be found among governesses, the most balanced minds, the most selfcontained natures, the purest and most elevated aims. The best wives and mothers of England are constantly recruited from their ranks. But let them go to their vocation cheerfully and conscientiously. Let them, in the first instance, put their engagements, as their employers are obliged to put them, on a business basis, which simply means the fair exchange of work done for wages paid, the obligation of probity, straightforwardness, and good feeling. Let the English girl clearly define her course to herself, and she will find that it is not unrewarded nor unadorned. Affection and esteem will always cluster around the discharge of her modest circle of duty.

Commercial Travellers.

HALL I not take mine ease in my inn?'

SHALL

The

It

answer is: Yes, if you can get it. I delight in the inn, where, the more trouble you give, the more things you call for, the warmer is your welcome. is often a pleasant thought, in a long day's severe wandering, to let the mental eye dwell well pleased on that sort of picture which Cowper loved so wellshutters closed, curtains drawn, the luxurious couch, the hissing urn, and the contents of the mail-bag. All this may be secured at the average well-conducted English inn. Some of the innkeepers I have known have been among the pleasantest, best-hearted, and best-informed of my acquaintance. The agitation is absurd, which, on account of some few sots, always the abhorrence of a good inn, and who would be sots at any place, or under any circumstances, would wish travellers to be excluded from the good things which they very sorely want. Still I am going to set forth a legitimate complaint which I have against some of the English hotels.

I got in one night lately into a famous cathedral city, and resorted to an hotel which said all good things in favour of itself in the pages of Bradshaw. They say that self-praise is no recommendation but this is a mistake, for when you want a recommendation; and none is forthcoming, you are ready to adopt a man's estimate of himself. I really thought, however, that my host had underpraised himself, for I was shown into a most luxurious room; a cheerful fire was blazing; the papers were lying about; there was an air of the utmost comfort and domesticity everywhere. The room was pretty full of gentlemen, well-dressed, well-mannered, acute, cheerful, and intelligent. There was not a touch of superciliousness about the waiters, who were evidently anxious to make all their guests comfortable and perfectly at home. I felt pleasantly thawed by the quiet influences around me, took sherry and soda, reposed on an easy couch, ordered a light supper, and caught up fragments of fresh, hearty, and original talk, which pleased me greatly.

I noticed a number of packages lying about this large, handsome room. The men, with all their pleasant, unaffected ways, had a little too much keenness about them-an unrest evidenced also by a number of Bradshaws lying about. I soon found out that they were commercial travellers, and I only trust they had as good an opinion of me as I bore away of them. They gave me a great deal of interesting

information about themselves and on various subjects.

But,

A

I rarely have spent a more pleasant evening. alas! I was not allowed to conclude it in peace. waiter entered, transfixed me with a severe glance, and said, 'A mistake, I believe, sir. This is the way to the coffee-room.' I resigned myself to my fate. The waiter effected a capture, took me off to the coffeeroom-chilly, small, with horse-hair sofa and chairs, with a draught, with a smoky chimney, with coloured prints of horses and a county directory, with my own very bad company. I missed the modern knights of the road sorely, groaned deeply, and went to bed vindictively.

They were, indeed, gentlemanly and intelligent men, not knowing much, perhaps, of the world of books, but with a thorough knowledge of our own country, and with quite a gift of the faculty of observation, sharpened and improved by constant cultivation. Mr. Zincke says, in his recent volume of American travels, that in his voyage to New York, 'the best-mannered people were the Yankee and New York traders; some of these were buyers for large wholesale and retail houses, others on their own account. There were about a dozen of them on board. They were very careful about their dress, and their conversation was pleasing and intelligent. The majority of them were entirely free from the Yankee tone of voice.

They were the very reverse of pushing, and they never

guessed.' Similar commendation is justly due to our English commercial travellers. Some of them are men of great experience and knowledge of the world, and receive their clear thousand a year, besides their expenses, for services which are perhaps not too highly renumerated even at this rate. Publicity is everything to people in business, and there are just two ways of publicity being insured, on the rival merits of which I do not profess to form an opinion—either by advertising or by the system of employing travellers. Some businesses hold most firmly by advertising. Commercial travellers hold most firmly by themselves. They have a peculiar plan for them in the hotel system. Every hotel has its commercial room and its commercial tariff. They pay about a third or a quarter less than the coffee-room travellers, and sometimes, as in the case I have just given, they get three or four times the comfort of the coffee-room. In country districts they have various immunities. When a man drives a gig, they often would not charge him for his bed. If he brought his wife with him, it was a point of good manners not to charge for the wife. The allowance for expenses was liberal, and, though some saved, others made a point of spending at least all they got this way. They are the most wary and scientific of travellers. I have heard the remark made that they monopolise a little too much of the attendance and of good fares, to the injury