But I should be talking about tea, not smoking; and tea has other
baneful influences besides destroying the digestion. I think that
afternoon tea is the time that breeds more gossip and scandal than
any other hour in the day.

As Young exclaims:--

"Tea! How I tremble at thy fatal stream!
As Lethe dreadful to the love of fame.
What devastations on thy bank are seen,
What shades of mighty names that once have been!
A hecatomb of characters supplies
Thy painted alters' daily sacrifice!"

Acquaintances drop in. They have all the latest doings of the
neighborhood at their fingers' ends, and in a quarter of an hour have
picked everyone of their most intimate friends to pieces, nor do they
leave them a shred of character.

Why do we feel such a relish in running down our friends and
relations--the latter especially? _I_ quite enjoy it, though I should
never do so outside my own family; thus my words never come round to
their ears. It is a necessity to relieve your feelings occasionally,
and your family is a good, safe receptacle.

For those who have a taste for speaking spitefully of their neighbors,
I can suggest an amusing game which was, I believe, started in Oxford.
It is called Photograph whist, and is played by four. Two or three
dozen photographs are dealt round, and each person plays one, he who