"Author!" and sustained applause;
Such is the round of toil that leaves not limp
Fiume's favoured Pontifex et Imp.--
I thought I'd ring you up.

_King Con._ Well, well, what is it?

_D'Ann._ I hear you are proposing to revisit
Athens.

_King Con._ Well, if I am, what's that to you?

_D'Ann._ This, that, whilst gazing at the local blue
The other day, I hit upon the plan
Of conquering the Mediterranean,
Including the AEgean and the finer
Portions, most probably, of Asia Minor,
And holding them as provinces beneath
Fiume and my own imperial wreath.

_King Con._ Go on, then, dash you.

_D'Ann._ I shall soon begin;
But I decline to have you butting in.
Tyrants there still may be, but not the sort
Discarded from a philo-Teuton Court;
The tolerant warmth that sheds a kind of lustre
Over a stout Ausonian filibuster
Does not extend to thoroughly bad hats
Like abdicated Hellene autocrats.
And, if the Allies feel some slight reserve
About resisting your confounded nerve,
I, GABRIELE, do not. You may be
A kind of subject satrap under me;
If not, look out. You shall have cause to know
The singing eagles of D'ANNUNZIO.

_King Con._ I'll think it over.

_D'Ann._ Do so swiftly then;
Meanwhile good morning; I must see some men--
Also the Muse. She waits upon my pen.
[_Rings off._

EVOE.

* * * * *

"How many cocktails are there? 'William,' the mixer at the Royal
Automobile lub, who was for eayrs at the Hotel ecil, states
that he can produce some 70 varieties without repeating
himself."--_Daily Paper._

And did the author of the above paragraph try them all?

* * * * *

"Towards the conclusion of the meeting Miss Dolly ---- sang the
solo 'The City of Light' in a very able style, and, as Mr. ----
mentioned in a vote of thanks, which he proposed, seconded and
supported, to the Chairman, speaker, accompanist, and soloist,