WOMAN’S “NO.”

Patea Mail, 15 January 1881, Page 4

WOMAN’S “NO.”

London Truth offered a prize for the best letter, the subject to be the refusal of an offer of marriage. The result was an inundation nearly filling the editor’s office, Here are samples, beginning with “ Portia,” who took the prize : Dear Mr. ,i am very sorry ; I appreciate you immensely, but I cannot give the casket without the gem.—Portia. Dear Mr Caliban—ln declining the honor of an offer from you, I am constrained to own, in justice to my judgment, that I only refuse such a one because I have accepted such another.—Miranda. Friend ever, husband never.—A.S.P. No, thank you.—Sweet Pea. Dear Mr. ,Take back your offer. I cannot send a refusal to you, the friend I so value and esteem.—Lanark, No, dear : mother says I mustn’t.—Poor Polly. Dear Sir—ln declining a proposal which I trust you will believe I appreciate as the highest compliment you could possibly have paid me, I beg to assure you, in all sincerity, that upon a review of my own demerits, it is my belief that my refusal of your offer of marriage is the best and most unselfish return I can make you.—Believe me, dear sir, yours sincerely.—Pink Domino. My dear Edwin—There is nothing in the world I value more than your friendship. You suggest to me the adoption of a course by which I should most certainly lose it. How cruel 1 how unkind ! But the strength of my regard makes me invulnerable to temptation. I am too much your friend to marry you, and such I hope always to remain. Ever your sincere friend,—Angelina. Dear Sir—You chanced to state accidentally in a recent conversation that your digestion was not good. This being the case, I feel it would be unwise for me to accept the proposal you have just made, for amiability of temper and chronic dyspepsia, as I know too well from my dear father’s case, are utterly incompatible one with the other. A man with a bad digestion can, alas ! never make a good husband. Yours, sympathetically,— Sarah Acton.