*

SAD THOUGHT IN MY OWN LIBRARY.--I am a stranger among books. Resting
on their shelves, they all turn their backs on me. _En revanche_, if I
find among them a new one, a perfect stranger to me, I cut him.

* * * * *

[Illustration: TRUE HOSPITALITY.

(_Sir Bonamy Croesus gives seven Dinner Parties a week, and expects
his Friends to come and choose their own day, and inscribe their Names
and the Date on the Dinner-Book in the Hall_.)

_Fair Visitor_. "Look, George! Wednesday, the 17th, the Fetterbys
are coming. That'll do capitally!" (_Writes down "Mr. and Mrs. Topham
Sawyer, Feb. 17th."_) "And There's room for one more. Let's drive
round to Emily's, and get her to come and put her Name down for the
same Day!"]

* * * * *

ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.

EXTRACTED FKOM THE DIARY OF TOBY, M.P.

_House of Commons, Monday, February 8_.--The coming of Prince ARTHUR
anxiously looked for as Members gathered for last Session of a
memorable Parliament. When, in August last, he, with the rest of us,
went away, OLD MORALITY still sat in Leader's place. He was, truly,
just then absent in the flesh, already wasting with the dire disease
that carried him off. It was JOKIM who occupied the place of Leader;
Prince ARTHUR, content to sit lower down. It seemed to some that when
vacancy occurred JOKIM, that veteran Child of Promise, would step in,
and younger men wait their turn. But youth of certain quality must
come to the front, as BONAPARTE testified even before he went to
Italy, and as PITT showed when the Rockingham Administration went to
pieces.

Prince ARTHUR came in shortly after four o'clock. House full,
especially on Opposition Benches; faint blush suffused ingenuous cheek
as welcoming cheer arose. Seemed to know his way to Leader's place,
and took it naturally. Pretty to see JOKIM drop in on one side of
him with MATTHEWS on the other, buttressing him about with financial
reputation and legal erudition. _Tableau_ quite undesigned, but none
the less effective. Prince ARTHUR, young, hot-tempered and, though not
without parts, prone to commit errors of judgment. But with JOKIM at
his left shoulder, and HENRY MATTHEWS at his right, humble citizens
looking on from opposite Benches, felt a sweet content. On such a
basis, the Constitution might stand any blast.

In absence of Mr. G., who still dallies with the sunshine of Riviera,
SQUIRE OF MALWOOD, fresh from hu