We do not mean to say that all such
opposition is dishonest. We think it is very
rarely so. Men easily slip into delusions and
mistakes, even of the most obvious kind, when
such pitfalls lie upon the path of their
self-interest. They push their way along that
path with strong determination to go
forward; and if guide-posts, set up in the
interests of a reformed doctrine of any kind
whatever, direct them to go back, or turn off
to the right or left of their main road, they
may perhaps honestly be angry with the
post, and think it a false guide. Sanitary
reform has many such enemies; who say of it
what may be true to them in their anger, but
of which the falsehood ought to be apparent
to the public. It is not so apparent, because
information never has kept pace with
misrepresentation upon matters that concern the
public health.

Believing these things, and desiring that
every man should engage actively in the
discussion of affairs that concern, in a direct
way, the life and health of his own household,
we shall henceforth take additional
pains in pointing out, as far as we are able,
what truths lie under those discussions upon
points of public health that constantly arise
among us. This journal never has been idle
in the work of seeking and communicating
information on such subjects; but, we must
now all arm ourselves afresh. There is
little hope now left to us of success for the
next ten years in the war against pestilence,
unless—every man volunteering as a sanitary
militia-man for the defence of his own hearth
—the whole public goes into training, and,
equipped with the right knowledge, fights for
itself the battles that will then assuredly
be won.

MILDRED'S LOVERS.

"SUCH presumption!" said Mrs. Lyndon,
the stockbroker's wife, frowning; and "Such
forwardness!" returned Miss Manvers, the
lady, par excellence, of the establishment,
tossing her head.

"A man with five hundred a year and
expectations!" said Mrs. Lyndon, disdainfully.
Mrs. Lyndon, though at present in
difficulties, had married, as people say, above
her, and was consequently very bitter against
mésalliances.

"And one who cares nothing about her!—
as how could he, such a plain little hodmadod
as she is! Quite forced, as one may say,
into paying her attention!

"I have no patience with that girl's boldness!"
sneered Miss Manvers, who, by
virtue of a traditional beauty, had a private
patent for propriety, being supposed to know
what temptation meant. So they settled it
between them, that poor Mildred, the
daughter of the house (it was a boarding-
house), was an arrant little minx. And
there they left her.

Mildred came into the room a moment
after they had so prettily arranged her, as
the French say, with her shy look and queer,
embarrassed step, as usual—a step that
seemed to stumble over itself, as if her feet
were too long at the toes, and caught in each
other's way. She always walked, too, with
her head down and her eyes cast up from
under her eyebrows. She was very shortsighted
as well as nervous, and her shoulders and
hands were conscious and restless. She was
not pretty, but interesting in face; and as
she attracted more attention than many
handsomer women, this, of course, was a
truer criterion of her powers of pleasing than
mere regularity of line and feature. She
was quaint, and original, and clever—
sarcastic, too and said odd, out of the way
things; and put matters in a new light; and
had always something striking to add to
every discussion, which made other people
feel that they had been very tame and
common-place and stupid: and she sometimes
ventured on extremely beautiful illustrations,
all in her little nervous, hesitating, unequal
manner; and intellectually was worth half
a dozen of the fine ladies who despised her
with such comfortable contempt. Then she
was young and had good eyes—those large,
dreamy, innocent, shortsighted eyes, which
she was fully conscious were good, and
which her way of looking up from under her
brows made yet more remarkable; and she
was openly slighted by the ladies, because she
was poor, and because she flirted—a
combination of offences few women forgive. And
she had a good deal of artistic taste and feeling,
which always lightens up a character; so
that in consideration of all these facts, the
men paid her vast attention; and she
generally had one or two flirtations on hand at
the same time—the intricacies of which she
managed with the skill of an old general.

The foolish child rejoiced in her triumphs, as
perhaps was natural, and managed to display
them before her main enemies, Mrs. Lyndon,
and Miss Manvers, without showing that she
did it intentionally, as perhaps was only
natural too, though unwise. But Mildred,
in her secret heart, was one of the most
reckless creatures imaginable, like many other
quiet and compressed people; and at any
time would have hazarded all her future for
the pleasure of half an hour's evident
success. It was so glorious to be able to revenge
herself on those who despised her, by showing
them that she could triumph both over
them and fate; and that meanly as they
thought of her, there were others who placed
her far before even them; and that though
they looked on her with contempt, other
people worshipped her with enthusiasm—
with other like thoughts and feelings always
busy in a slighted woman's brain. But she
had to pay dearly for her naughty pride
afterwards, poor little soul!

While she was fidgeting over the music-books,