of my
disclaimer last week, I have been asked several questions which are
not connected with Sentiment and Propriety. "BELLADONNA" asks my
advice on rather a delicate case; she is almost engaged to a man, A.,
and her greatest friend is a girl, B. Happening, the other day, to
open B.'s Diary by mistake for her own, she discovered that B. is
also very much in love with A. What is "BELLADONNA" to do? I think
the most honourable course would be to report in her own Diary a
statement by A. that he loathes B., and then leave the Diary where B.
might mistake it for her own. This is checkmate for B., because she
cannot do anything nasty without thereby implying that she has read
"BELLADONNA's" Diary.

* * * * *

HAMLET; OR, KEEPING IT DARK.

SCENE I.--_At the Haymarket.--Darkness visible. Out of it come
Voices._

_First Voice_ (_probably on stage_). "_Who's there?_"

_Second V._ (_probably in auditorium_). I can't see. Is it TREE?

_Third V._ "_Nay, answer me: stand and unfold yourself._"

_Fourth V._ I wish I could unfold the seat to let people pass.

_Third V._ "_You come most carefully upon your hour._"

_Fourth V._ Why on earth can't people be more punctual?

_First V._ "_'Tis now struck twelve._"

_Fourth V._ About a dozen people have hit my head scrambling past in
the dark.

_Third V._ "_For this relief much thanks._"

_Fourth V._ They seem to have got in at last.

_Third V._ "_'Tis bitter cold._"

_Fifth V._ Oh, EDWIN, dear, I do wish they'd send away the ghost, and
turn up the lights.

_Third V._ "_Not a mouse stirring._" [_Crash._

_Sixth V._ There goes my opera-glass! Deuce of a job to find it.

_Third V._ "_Stand, ho!_"

_Seventh V._ Bless my soul, Ma'am, are you aware that you're standing
on my foot?

_Third V._ "BERNARDO _has my place._"

_Sixth V._ Here's someone taken my seat!

_First V._ "_What, is_ HORATIO _there?_"

_Eighth V._ Hullo, dear boy, how are you? Couldn't see you--but now
the light's a bit up--(_&c., &c._).

* * * * *

A CRITERION OF MORALS.--Astutely doing "The Puff Preliminary" in a
letter to the papers before the production of _The Fringe of Society_
(i.e., _Le Demi-monde_ freely adapted), Mr. CHARLES WYNDHAM observes
that "there is no such class, in any recognisable degree, as the
_demi-monde_ in England." "Recognisable" is good, very good, it saves
the situation, as of course the _demi-monde_ is _not