is my artful way. "He camped out," I should go on, "in the Thiergarten.
He says that to see the French waving their arms and cheering on the top
of the Brandenburg Gate was one of the finest things possible to
imagine. He had one bit of special luck: he was chosen to be one of the
guard to protect the removal of the Kaiser Friedrich Museum pictures
which are coming to London. He says that among these is the famous
portrait of ALEXANDER DEL BORRO (No. 413A) which is among our little
lot."

That would be worth living for--the triumph of that relation's letter!
It cannot, I fear, be mine; but surely it will be somebody's....

* * * * *

Illustration: _Sergeant_ (_looking for likely talent_). "DOES YOUR
HORSE JUMP AT ALL?"

_Recruit._ "OH NO, SIR, THANK YOU. HE'S A VERY NICE HORSE!"

* * * * *

OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.

(_By Mr. Punch's Staff of Learned Clerks._)

Some part of the fascination that I found in _Tributaries_ (CONSTABLE)
was perhaps due to the interest of a problem. On the cover I am told
that the author "chooses to be anonymous in order that his story should
not suffer from the least suggestion of a party bias." And of course,
after reading this, I simply had to discover who it was. By the time I
reached the last page I had formed a tolerably confident guess. But I
will not commit myself further than to say that no one, however
"well-known in Great Britain and America" (the publisher again is my
authority), need be ashamed to own up to _Tributaries_, which is quite
one of the best written novels of the year. It is the story of a modern
demagogue, a young apostle of political nonconformity, part charlatan,
part zealot, who comes to town from a provincial chapel, and ends up a
glorious failure as a soured and unpopular Cabinet Minister. There is an
unusual quality in the characterisation and humour of this story of
_Maurice Sangster_. Page after page abounds with touches of observation
which betray the practised hand. The end, in its dry, unemotional
justice, approaches real tragedy. One small point. _Maurice's_
father-in-law, who hates and wishes to humiliate him, finds his
opportunity when a turn of the party wheel throws the Minister out of
office and into poverty. Her father thereupon allows _Mrs. Sangster_
fifteen hundred a year for household expenses on condition that
_Maurice_, who is scraping a bare hundred by his pen, shall not learn of