Page:The lady or the tiger and other stories, Stockton (Scribner's 1897 ed).djvu/207

No. 3.

From a superintendent of an iron-foundry, to a lady who refused his hand in her youth, and who has since married an inspector of customs in one of the southern states, requesting her, in case of her husband's decease, to give him permission to address her, with a view to a matrimonial alliance.

Brier Iron Mills, Secauqua, Ill., July 7, '77.

Dear Madam: Although I am fully aware of the robust condition of your respected husband's health, and of your tender affection for him and your little ones, I am impelled by a sense of the propriety of providing in time for the casualties and fortuities of the future, to ask of you permission, in case of your (at present unexpected) widowhood, to renew the addresses which were broken off by your marriage to your present estimable consort.

An early answer will oblige,
Yours respectfully,
JOHN PICKETT.

No. 4.

From a cook-maid in the family of a dealer in silver-plated casters, to the principal of a boarding-school, enclosing the miniature of her suitor.

1317 East 17th St., N.Y., July 30, '77.

Venerated Madam: The unintermittent interest you have perpetually indicated in the direction of my well-being stimulates me to announce my approaching con-