and Rose_."

_The Mother_ (_disappointed_). Now, why can't he give it some
_sensible_ name, instead of taking away all one's interest!

_The Phil. Uncle_ (_whom a succession of Symphonies and Harmonies has
irritated to the verge of fury_). Don't talk to me, Sir! Don't tell me
any of these things are pictures. Look at _this_--a young woman in an
outlandish dress sitting on the floor--on the bare floor!--in a litter
of Japanese sketches! And he has the confounded impertinence to call
it a "_Caprice_"--a "_Caprice in Purple and Gold_." _I_'d purple and
gold him, Sir, if I had _my_ way! Where's the _sense_ in such things?
What do they _teach_ you? What _story_ do they tell? Where's the
_human interest_ in them? Depend upon it, Sir, these things are
rubbish--sheer rubbish, according to all _my_ notions of Art, and I
think you'll allow I _ought_ to know something about it?

_His Nephew_ (_provoked beyond prudence_). You certainly ought to know
more than _that_, my dear Unc--Are you going?

_The Uncle_ (_grimly_). Yes--to see my Solicitor, Sir. (_To himself,
savagely._) That confounded young prig will find he's paid dear enough
for his precious Whistlers--if I don't have a fit in the cab!

[_He goes; the Nephew wonders whether his attempt at
proselytising was quite worth while._

_A Seriously Elderly Lady._ I've no _patience_ with the man. Look
at GUTSTAVE DORE, now. I'm sure _he_ was a beautiful artist, if
you _like_. Did _he_ go and call his "_Leaving the Praetorium_" a
"Symphony" or a "Harmony," or any nonsense of that kind? Of course
not--and yet look at the _difference_!

_An Impressionable Person_ (_carried away by the local influence--to
the Man at the wicket, blandly_). Could you kindly oblige me by
exchanging this "Note in Black and White" for an "Arrangement in
Silver and Gold"?

[_Finds himself cruelly misunderstood, and suspected of
frivolity._

* * * * *

PERSONAL PARAGRAPHS.

The Rev. No. 354, writing from Dartmoor, requests us to inform
his numerous friends in Bath and elsewhere that his health is much
improved by the bracing air, and that he is occupied in revising for
the press his course of Sermons to the Young on the Moral Virtues.
He is also anxious to inform his creditors that his accounts are now
completely in order. It is a source of great comfort to him to reflect
that he was able to obtain considerable sums of money from his friends
in Bath