Excerpt from New Leaves Produce a sense of boredom we know so well all that the writer is likely to say, and that almost certainly there will be nothing of news or interest in them that it will be a weariness to read them, and that they will go immediately into the fire when read. There are a few - how few as life goes on - the sight of which gives one a thrill Of delight and these, according to individual temperament, we either Open greedily at first or reserve as a bonne-bouche for the last. It is when we are young that the receipt of letters in public - at the break fast-table, for example - is most likely to cause us embarrassment, for in youth a business letter is a rare thing nearly all one's communications are of a personal character, and many of them are not unconnected with romantic emotions. We feel that the eyes of the breakfast-table - those deadly, observant eyes of the surrounding family - are upon us if we do Open the letter we shall have to read it under that fire of glances; if we do not, we thereby advertise the fact that it is of too private and sacred a nature to be read in public. We feel it impossible, if we Open it and read it, that some casual glance will not observe the disposition of writ ing on the front pa ge - whether it begins with three short words like My dear John whether there are only two words (the longer one first), which can only be darling or dearest whether there is only one short word, which is certainly one Of endearment or whether there is no line of. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.