micalities. It was certainly greatly enjoyed, when I saw it, by
the audience, who cheered Mr. BARNES and Miss RORKE to the echo, and
hissed all their enemies to their heart's content, as a reward for the
most effectively-simulated villany.

Very soon all the Theatres will be busy with the Autumn-cum-Winter
Season. The first on the List is Drury Lane, which, reserving PAYNE
for the Pantomime at Christmas, opens in September with _Pleasure_.

Always yours sincerely,
ONE WHO HAS GONE TO PIECES.

* * * * *

SALUBRITIES ABROAD.

_Still at Royat. Hotel Continental.--A propos_ of PULLER "airing
his French" Miss LOUISA METTERBRUN said something delighful to him
the other day at dinner. PULLER had been instructing us all in some
French idioms until Madame METTERBRUN set him right in his
pronunciation. He owned that he had made a slip. "But," says he,
wagging his head and pulling up his wristbands with the air of a
man thoroughly well satisfied with himself generally, "but I think
you'll allow that I can speak French better than most Englishmen,
eh?"

Madame METTERBRUN doesn't exactly know what to say, but Miss LOUISA
comes to the rescue. "O Mr. PULLER"--he is frequently at their house
in London, and they know him intimately--"I always say to Mamma, when
we're abroad, that I do like to hear you talk French"--PULLER
smirks and thinks to himself that this is a girl of sense and rare
appreciation--"because," she goes on quietly, and all at table are
listening, "because your speaking French reminds me so of home." Her
home is London. I think PULLER won't ask Miss LOUISA for an opinion on
his French accent again in a hurry.

* * * * *

I have just been reading VICTOR HUGO'S _Choses Vues_. Admirable!
_Fuite de Louis Philippe!_ What a pitiful story. Then his account,
marvellously told, and the whole point of the narrative given in two
lines, of what became of the brain of TALLEYRAND. Graphically written
is his visit to THIERS on behalf of ROCHEFORT. Says THIERS to him,
"_Cent journaux me trainent tous les matins dans la boue. Mais
savez-vous mon procede? Je ne les lis pas._" To which HUGO rejoined,
"_C'est precisement ce que je fais. Lire les diatribes, c'est respirer
les latrines de sa renommee._" Most public men, certainly most
authors, artists, and actors, would do well to remember this advice,
and act upon it.

* * * * *