e'd just love to be here--he's ever so much artistic
feeling!

_Mr. T._ Well, I don't see why he couldn't have come along if he'd
wanted.

_Miss T._ (_with a glance at her neighbour_). I presume he'd reasons
enough. He's a vurry cautious man. Likely he was afraid he'd get
bitten.

_Miss P._ (_after a swift scrutiny of Miss T.'s features_). Oh, BOB,
remind me to get some more of that mosquito stuff. I _should_ so hate
to be bitten--such a _dreadful_ disfigurement!

_Miss T._ (_to the Moon_). I declare if I don't believe I can feel
some creature trying to sting me now!

_Miss P._ Some people are hardly recognisable, BOB, and they say the
marks never _quite_ disappear!

_Miss T._ Poppa, don't you wonder what CHARLEY's doing just now? I'd
like to know if he's found anyone yet to feel an interest in the great
Amurrcan Novel. It's curious how interested people do get in that
novel, considering it's none of it written, and never will be. I guess
sometimes he makes them believe he means something by it. They don't
understand it's only CHARLEY's way!

_Miss P._ The crush isn't quite so bad now. Mr. PODBURY, if you
will kindly ask your friend not to hold on to our gondola, we should
probably be better able to turn. (CULCHARD, _who had fondly imagined
himself undetected, takes his hand away as if it were scorched._) Now
we can get away. (_To Gondolier._) Voltiamo, se vi piace, prestissimo!

[_The gondola turns and departs._

_Miss T._ Well, I do just enjoy making PRENDERGAST girl perfectly
wild, and that's a fact. (_Reflectively._) And it's queer, but I like
her ever so much all the time. Don't _you_ think that's too fonny of
me, Mr. CULCHARD, now?

[_CULCHARD feigns a poetic abstraction._

* * * * *

[Illustration: OVER TIME IN LEAP YEAR.]

* * * * *

ONLY FANCY!

[Illustration: Only Fancy!]

We are supplied by our special reporter with some interesting and
significant facts in connection with the last Cabinet Council. Lord
SALISBUY arrived early, walking over from the Foreign Office under
cover of an umbrella. The fact that it was raining may only partly
account for this manoeuvre. Lord CROSS arrived in a four-wheeled
cab and wore his spectacles. Lord KNUTSFORD approached the Treasury
walking on the left hand side of the road going westward, whilst Lord
CRANBROOK deliberately chose the pavement on the other side of the
way. This is regar