have more
confidence in him if he were a little _less_ so.

_Doctor T._ (_gravely_). You see, JOSEPH, there are some things in
your earlier school career which your well-wishers would fain--forget.
You were rather what is called, I think, "a young Radical" once, not
to say "a bit of a pickle." You seemed not altogether out of sympathy
with such revolutionary proceedings as "revolts" and "barring-outs,"
and even talked once, if I remember rightly, of putting the Principals
"to ransom"--doctrines better worthy of a Calabrian brigand than of a
public school-boy. But let bygones _be_ bygones. Now that you are in
a position of responsibility and--respectability, you will, of course,
abandon all such revolutionary rubbish, and think not of yourself, but
others; consider less the wild wishes of your inferiors than the wise
commands of your betters.

_Master Joe_ (_solemnly_). Oh, of _course_, Sir! And now, if you, _Dr.
Poloni_--ahem!--Dr. T., and _Mrs. Pip_--I mean Mrs. S., have _quite_
finished your wig--I should say wise counsellings, I think I'll--go
out and play! [_Does so._

* * * * *

DYNAMITICAL ARGUMENTS.--The Apostles of "the Gospel of Dynamite"
would, if they could, speedily convert a whole town--into a ruin.

* * * * *

[Illustration: A STARTLING PROPOSITION.

_Seedy Individual_ (_suddenly and with startling vigour_)--"AOH? FLOY
WITH ME ERCROSS THER SEA, ERCROSS THER DORK LERGOON!!"]

* * * * *

OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.

With a spice of _Tristram Shandy_, a dash of _Ferdinand Count Fathom_,
and none the worse for the quaint flavouring thus given to the style
and manner of the romance, _The Blue Pavilions_ by "Q." is about as
good a tale of rapid dramatic and exciting adventure as the Baron
remembers to have read,--for some time at least. There is in it little
enough of love, though that little is well and prettily told, but
there is no lack of fighting at long odds and at short intervals,
of hairbreadth escapes, and of such chances by land and sea as keep
the reader, all agog, hurrying on from point to point, anxious to
see what is to happen next, and how the expected is to eventuate
unexpectedly. The story is for the most part told in a humorous
devil-may-care-believe-it-or-not-as-you-like sort of way which compels
attention, occasionally raises a smile, and always excites curiosity.
As a one-barrel novel, this oug