Occasionally such characters appear in "society,"-- rare creatures, in whom a pernicious education has not spoiled the simplicity and honesty which is their only virtue.

They fall naturally into the position of confessors to the community, for the community requires confessors of some sort.

In them confides the hardened sinner bursting with evil deeds and the accumulation of petty naughtiness.

To them comes the beardless ass, simpering from his first adventure, and generally "afraid he has compromised" the mature woman of the world, whom he has elected to serve, desiring to know what he ought to do about it.

To them, too, comes sometimes the real sufferer with his or her little tale of woe, hesitatingly told, half hinted, hoping to be wholly understood.