toms of reaction are numerous and un- influence far and wide. If the leading mistakable, and Rümelin's book is the minds of Germany should one day most conspicuous one. That he and come to consider Shakespeare as a sort Humbert are not wholly without influ- of Merovingian king, who had outlived ential sympathizers, is evident from the his times, and dethrone him among following passage taken from Unsere themselves, we should soon find like Zeit, the semi-monthly supplement to symptoms of revolt among ourselves. Brockhaus Conversationslexikon: “We Rümelin's Shakespeare Studies may be should think now that every one, even regarded, then, as marking a new era in with regard to Shakespeare, has the German criticism. Indeed, I know of right to go to heaven in his own way. no work in our own language that is so The manner in which, in the recent characterized by an earnest, keen desire (German) Shakespeare Annual, Rümelin to get at the marrow of the matter. is set down and set right, just like a Rümelin has most rightfully called himmeddlesome intruder who has not pro- self a realist. If we take up any ordiperly taken his degree as Shakespeare nary biography of Shakespeare, any essay Doctor by some happy text-emendation, upon his genius, we find this one idea shows unmistakably that, besides the constituting the atmosphere of the picShakespeare gospel, there has been set ture: that Shakespeare is an incompreup an entire body of Highchurch Shake- hensible genius, a child of mystery, who speare dogmatics, that no one may ven- lived, it is true, in England, on the borture to oppose under penalty of anath- der-line of the sixteenth and seventeenth

Such language, in one of the centuries, but who really existed indemost conspicuous and influential peri- pendent of time and space and all the odicals of Germany, is significant of other surroundings that hamper ordithe feelings with which the true corps nary men. As Rümelin says, we conof literary critics (I take Rudolph Gott- ceive of him as a Titanic genius stridschall to be author of the passage) re- ing over the centuries and the countries. gard the spirit of such .men as Ulrici, The realist coolly pauses and asks himElze, and Gervinus,

self, “ Can this be so? Was not ShakeWe, to whom the language and speare a mortal, and therefore limited thought of Shakespeare are native, can- by the circumstances in which he lived, not look with indifference upon the guided and misguided, stimulated and position that Shakespeare occupies in fettered, by his associates ?

Let us Germany. International relations are not bow down and worship him, then, so unrestrained that not even a literary as a myth; let us rather seek him out bubble of importance can burst in one as a man, and understand him as a quarter without spreading its circles of man."

ema."

MORE OF THE DOMESTIO ROMANCE.

I NEVER thought to have resumed this Hayne. Yes, as my twenty-seventh year story, for I supposed the Van Hattan drew on, the map of my life to come episode had closed the “story part of began to roll out before me. To cherish my life. People are apt to feel so, I be- these two, so venerable and dear, while lieve, when existence has fallen back to they should remain, and then to begin its usual round after some great experi- the lone pilgrimage of " Aunty" among ence, and as the years flow on they are the others-that was the programme. surprised to find themselves leading lives They did not need me much so far. just as eager and interested as in those The three brides were so eager to disdays when the sky fell.

play their domestic prowess to their apI remember Ellen Zerrahn once said preciative parents that these were for a to me, that the worst thing about mar- while kept en route continually. I too riage was that, thoroughly settled had been the rounds, and formed the at housekeeping, there would not seem upneeded third in those duets of bliss to be much more of any thing; there familiar to all who have enjoyed the sowould be no more splendid possibilities ciety of the newly-married. in the life of a girl once seated opposite At this juncture came a call for one Mr. Jones at the diurnal coffee and soft- more repetition of the róle. It was from boiled eggs. And now ? Never did life Ellen Zerrahn, now Mrs. Browne“, open out so illimitably to Ellen Zerrahn name not far behind that of the imagined in her most romantic years as it does to- Jones. But this was a college-bred, day, as she sits with the little flannel prosperous—nay, an aristocratic Browne. bundle on her lap!

His mother was a Lanphier, and the How difficult it is to believe that the superb Misses Lanphier, his cousins, had people who are living most are some- accepted an invitation for the three times those whose lives seem to us liko months I was to be there; and then, too, 6 weeds on Lethe's wharf.” So to some we should have Stephen, first from Satvery young Fanny, who has just read urday till Monday every week, then for another of Edward's impassioned notes, the four weeks' vacation. seems the old maid who sits patient in Of this desirable Stephen, considered her faded sweetness, with all these things sufficient to bear subdivision among three forever gone by her. But what of the young ladies, I had heard much. Prosage's little sentence, " It is only in re- jected as a smart boy" into college nunciation true life may be said to be- at fifteen, and finished at nineteen,

he, at twenty-five a young lawyer of We had entered very easily and natu- promise, had made the unique discovery rally upon the bequest. It was not a that he had not enough education, and vast sum, certainly, but with the skill was taking a two years' turn at Harlearned in our hard school we were en- vard. abled to produce quite wonderful results. All these visitors for the winter Ellen The always fair young sisters now blos. secured in the spring, just as they had somed out so brightly that they were taken a house and begun to furnish it. speedily gathered by honorable hands. I found the result of their labors In less than four years three of the charming beyond what I had imagined Misses Hayne were wives, and the home- or Ellen described, on the bright Octocircle narrowed, and seemed to settle it- ber evening which began my visit. The self with great permanence in the per- little house was beautiful, indeed, with sons of Mr., Mrs., and the eldest Miss the skill and taste which had dispensed

gin?”

the "siller and to spare" upon its fur- my household ear began to listen, to find nishings, and in the soft, radiant light in what part of her domain Ellen might of the parlor I found a fitting group. be. A faint grating sound from the The eyes of the sweet bride shone with kitchen enabled me to guess, and I went welcome. The Mr. Browne, now that down. I found her not "superintendI saw him, I did not wonder Ellen ing,” as our manuals on the duty of thought a prince of men, He had a face wives propose as the limit of reasonable so true, and lovely, and manly, you were request, but tugging away with her own just glad he was alive and an American hands at a freezer of water-ice. citizen.

Mary understood perfectly,” said I never saw more elegant girls than she, ruefully, “that she was to freeze it Lucretia and Juliet Lanphier. They were after I made it, but she has gone out not of the regulation-type-just one friz for all that. Oh, dear.” It was a long and flounce—though there was amply sigh, and came, I well knew, not only enough concession to fashion in their rich from present weariness, but many a dresses to show their recognition of its trouble past. I turned over a little tub high claims. I dimly remembered hav- to secure a low seat, and in spite of her ing seen them at a Van Hattan dinner- protest lend a hand, and as we worked party. They were of that order of be- she poured out the familiar story. "I ings, though they made the literary and have had nine different girls since I kept intellectual rather more an end and aim house,” said she. “We concluded after than the others had done.

a while that one was not enough, but After half an hour Ellen wanted to now we have two, things don't seem to show me the house, and I paused for å go on a bit better. The cook is a careless moment outside the open parlor-door, old Irish thing, and the housemaid one while she gave a message in the hall, and of the sort who paint their cheeks and fully saw Stephen Zerrahn.

are out all night at balls. Her idea of I saw how his face was the very seat putting in order is to poke things under of thought, and as his exceedingly dark and shove them out of sight. Neither blue eyes looked from under their black of them half mind me." lashes with such earnest attention upon I told her it was the common lot”Juliet Lanphier as she spoke, I thought romanced about the future cooperative they might have warmed any woman to kitchens and the Chinese; and by the the beauty and inspiration she certainly time the ice was stiff she cheered up,

and showed.

admitted her Browne-hood was lappier, I found all perfect up-stairs and down- with all its cares, than the easiest of her stairs and in my lady's chamber, and felt young-lady days had been. At this confident there was not a skeleton in one juncture Miss Kitty returned, and we of those trim closets-no serpent in this were allowed to go back to the parlor, Eden, unless—my experience would sug- while she tied on a white apron and gest the notion-it might possibly be the tiptoed in with the ice and a meritorions prismatic creature I had seen gliding air, which led Miss Lucretia to remark from the area, with ten flounces to her upon Mrs. Browne's “ nice little Ganytrail.

mede.” She also placidly mentioned the When we went back to the parlor, Mr. impossibility of people of real intelliBrowne was employed in reading the gence suffering to any extent from poor newspaper and the others were discuss- servants, as their acquired knowledge ing something very deep indeed. Una- of character must always enable the:n ble to get any clue, we had an easy-talk to avoid making bad selections. wiih Mír. Browne, from which Ellen With this consoling axiom our first presently slipped away. Shortly after, evening together closed. Tired with my some one called to see him, and I went journey I slept late, and finally awake, into the little library off the parlor and set my senses at work to find if my tarlooked over the books. After a while diness would be likely to inconvenience

a

the others. People conversant with First. Lucretia the stately, with a lithousekeeping can tell the rate of progress tle bend of her black brows, demanded below-stairs before they have risen. If for women the All-the seat in Congress, there comes up a woody odor, it shows the equal hand and voice in the tribune the fire just made or mended and break- and in the mart. Take the conventional fast a long way off; and as the meal pro- cramping hand from woman, and she gresses, its various stages of preparation expanded at once intellectually and phy, declare themselves. This morning the sically into the absolute equal of man. odors of coffee and ham crept up so long Then up spoke Juliet sofily fair, speakbefore the bell announced them on the ing as the most of men love to hear table, I know we should find both “done

women speak. She just reproduced the to death."

old chivalric ideas-women were made It is, unhappily, no rare sight to see for men, and set as high, or as low as an elegant group of breakfasters sipping their lords so pleased. And she seemed overboiled, sickish coffee out of fine chi- to take it for granted that men had been na and picking at chippy ham; but it and would still be pleased to make them troubled the Brownes exceedingly that queens; and what more could be asked ? these things should be in the house they She seemed to take no count of all those meant should be so perfect.

modern queens for whom wait no men The cousins Lanphier, fresh in white with crowns or even bread and butter. cashmere wrappers, left things for the Of herself, Juliet cared to be nothing; most part untasted, and lunched upon she, however, was the woman who, crackers in a pointedly cheerful and unconcerned way meant to convey their

"If Love were guide,

Would climb to power or in obscure content ability to rise above the most adverse

Sit down, accepting fate with changeless pride." of material circumstances.

Afterwards they assumed their velvet Miss Hayne, upon being examined, “togas," as Ellen called them, and went deposed that she was afraid of the New to a morning lecture at the Athenæum Testament. Interpreted as it read, withwith Stephen, while we stayed at home out any effort after “interior meanings,” and made the dessert and “saw to it was hard to escape the conclusion that things” generally, visiting famously all the power on woman's head, because of the while.

the angels, was not the kind of power to In the after-dinner leisure we all met send her to Congress and make her a and talked at a great rate, and under the civil ruler over men. And yet woman stimulus of appreciation, and perhaps a ought to vote--not to hold office, but to little friction, some very creditable men- choose her rulers. And if she would tal.sparkles were thrown off.

only be content to “throw away the After a while I found we were all worser part of it," this strife for hard talking chiefly for Stephen Zerrahn, and domination, and feel herself truly as she should have been provoked had I not is, “ not less but different,” then her also perceived the reason. Only he lis- greatest pride might seem this same tened to the remarks of each person with “heavenly difference " which gains for that close, thoughtful interest which is at her the award that man shall love her once so rare and so flattering. People even as Ch

loved the Church and gave so listened to are apt to imagine that himself for it. they are saying things very well worth Thus we all spoke, and did not obwhile.

serve at the time that none of us had He certainly drew us out wonderfully found out what Mr. Zerrahn thought. on all the usual topics, including the very fine and airy altogether ran the woman-question. Perhaps I cannot give speculations of us care-free young folks, you a better idea of the respective styles though I soon began to discover that life of the Lanphiers than by repeating their was not going quite so lightly with our viows.

hostess as with her guests. She had en

sea."

more.

tered the hard experiment of carrying resemble Mr. Tennyson's "Summer isle out a very high ideal of housekeeping of Eden in dark purple spheres of before an observant husband, and valued and possibly critical friends.

And the young man listened in his Needless to say the materials did not earnest way, and, thinking the long prove adequate to the work. She her thoughts of youth, doubtless Juliet and self had little more than the idea of her plan seemed fully reasonable. He what should be done. Had slie pos- could hardly be expected to know how sessed both skill and experience to the the thing was actually working at the full, it would not have altered the need Brownes'. for hard work on her part. The differ- As the weeks went, I saw that the ence would have been that she would circumstances which had made a winter's bave tired herself to death to some ap- visit from three young ladies desirable, proach to the Juggernaut “ideal,” while ceased to exist. Dear little Ellen began now she worked all the time only to feel to sit apart “printing her thoughts in the result a failure.

lawn," or, fagging at dinner and dessert, Ellen and her husband both possessed did her ineffectual best to have that a self-sacrificing courtesy not very usual, meal good and in season. But the doI am bound to say, among young house- mestic machinery ran down more and holders, and anxious that my visit should

The Misses Lanphier's bell be only delightful, Ellen tried to conceal formed no slight part of the service. the worst of her perplexities from me, Miss Ganymede, Ellen was satisfied to and often drove me out to take holiday find, answered it tolerably. Ranning with the other ladies when I felt I ought up with the morning paper, or to rake to be at home with her.

the fire, was easier than the Browne As the visit went on, I observed that part of the work, besides admitting her the Mecca to which the thoughts of the to a sight of Juliet doing her hair, and Misses Lanphier progressed all the week other processes profitable to observe for was the Saturday which brought the use at second hand. student in from Harvard. Lucretia's It would have been puzzling to imaclassic coiffure took on an additional gine how the two servants disposed of burnish and elaboration, and her toilet, much of the time, had the housemaid from being perfect, became, so to speak, been seen in the garden less frequently,

past human." Juliet's crimps flowed interviewing the girl next door, while in deeper waves, and for this occasion the ironing mildewed in the basket. only the old flower-woman was patron- Then, too, the odor of a dudheen in busiized for the bouquet which from the ness hours would steal up from the lovely girl's slender zone sent up its in- kitchen, showing that Mrs. O'Shaughcense to the dark-eyed youth,

nessy was entertaining a cousin. Finally, They talked with him a great deal I descended upon these quietly one day, about domestic life, for it appeared Lu- and found upon the table a loaded pilcretia included a home in her stately pro- low-case of fine linen, which proved to gramme. And, verily, it was to be a contain a tasteful little" cold collection," wonderful place. Those mythical pub- consisting of half a plum-cake, roast lic laundries and co ative kitchens fowls, ham, canned fruit, and other enwere all presupposed, and the labors of tremets, with a-perhaps accidentalthe wife, so far as we could gather, fork and spoon of the Browne silver in the would be all discharged when the midst. The cousin, starting up in conthetic tea," brought hot to the door in fusion, dropped and broke bis pipe upon the hermetical teapot, should be by her the hot range, and disappeared in the graciously poured out.

cloud. Mrs. O'Shaughnessy lingered but We did not get a perfectly clear idea to pack up her pair or two of footless of the working-model of Juliet's home, stockings and the other dress, and to atbut it was, as a modest whole, to closely tempt a judicious selection from our