The Temple.
MY DEAR DOROTHY,--Before going away for your summer holiday, I should
advise you to put all your valuables, such as your silver tea-set,
etc., into a strong iron box and get Gerald to deposit the same at his
bank, where it will be perfectly safe.
The bank will not give you a receipt for the contents of the box,
because they will not make themselves responsible for property which
they are taking care of gratuitously; but they will give you an
acknowledgment for the box itself, which is quite sufficient for your
purpose.
The landlady at Southsea had no justification for writing and telling
you that you could not have the rooms, which you had previously
engaged, for another week yet, because her present lodgers were staying
on in them. She has broken her contract with you--which was to let her
rooms to you from a certain date for a specified amount--so that if you
find it more convenient to leave town at the date you originally fixed,
you need not wait upon the Southsea landlady's pleasure. The contract
to take her rooms is at an end, and you need not go to her at all
unless it suits you to do so.
From a strictly legal point of view, you have a right of action
against her, which I do not advise nor suppose you would care to
exercise, although it is most annoying to have your plans upset in
this manner, and more especially too when you went to the trouble and
expense of going down to Southsea so as to make certain of securing
comfortable quarters.
I would not advise your friend to have anything to do with those
attractive advertisements which appear in the newspapers, offering home
employment to gentlewomen at the rate of ten to thirty shillings a
week. The dodge is little better than a swindle; perhaps not a swindle
in a strictly legal sense, but a swindle all the same.
The way it is worked is this: you are asked to send two or three
shillings in the first instance and in return you get a quantity of
rubber stamps which you have to sell to your friends at a profit, and
when you have disposed of them all (a most unlikely event) you buy more
rubber stamps at wholesale prices and sell them at retail ones; or else
you receive a packet of wool, which you have to knit into an impossible
number of socks and comforters, and for which you will be paid a small
sum for so many dozen pairs.
It is a particularly heartless swindle to my mind, because the
unfortunate ladies who answer these advertisements can ill afford to
waste even two or three shillings, and, of course, they are quite
unable to sell the rubber stamps or similar rubbish received in return
for their money.
I have received frequent complaints from ladies who have been taken
in by this trick, and I should like to see all such advertisements
expunged from the newspapers. The advertisement columns contain a good
many traps for the unwary. For instance, there is the “lady” who is
offering silver fish-knives for sale at an immense sacrifice, unused,
and less than half the original value.
You will observe that the word is “value” not “cost”; but she omits to
state that the value put upon them is that given to them by herself,
and, curiously enough, she is offering a similar sacrifice every day in
the year.
I do not suggest that there is any swindle in the above style of
advertisement. It is a trick of the trade, and if you are sharp enough
you will find that the same “lady” is offering other articles for sale
also at a sacrifice in another part of the paper.
The fact also that nearly all these articles are advertised as “unused”
ought to be sufficient to warn people that it is a dealer and not a
private individual who is advertising; but people, especially ladies,
my dear Dorothy, are so anxious to make a bargain that they cannot
resist the temptation to purchase an article, with a fictitious value
attached to it, at half price.
A similar article, if bought at a shop in the ordinary way, costs
less and lasts longer; but then it would not profess to be a
bargain--wherein lies the charm.
I am afraid that I cannot give you any comfort as regards the bill sent
in by your stationer, whom you say you have already paid. If you cannot
find or did not get a receipt from him you are powerless and will have
to pay it over again.
When tradespeople know your name and address, it is always advisable
to ask for a receipt if they do not offer to give you one. Even when
dealing with shops which profess to sell on cash terms only, I always
make a point of asking for a receipt if the goods are to be sent to my
address; and, for the future, I advise you to follow the example of
Your affectionate cousin,
BOB BRIEFLESS.
OLD ENGLISH COTTAGE HOMES;
OR,
VILLAGE ARCHITECTURE OF BYGONE DAYS.
[Illustration: COTTAGE AT PINNER.]