ther,
what--even Programmes--shall part us?

_Cox._ Who--even--ahem! a certain Party, shall tear us asunder?

_Box._ COX!

_Cox._ BOX!

[_About to embrace._ BOX _stops, seizes_ COX's _hand,
and looks eagerly in his face._

_Box._ You'll excuse the apparent insanity of the remark, but the more I
gaze on your features, the more I'm convinced that you'd never be such a
suicidal idiot as to--seek another Chamber?

_Cox_ (_winking_). Walker!

_Box._ Ah--tell me--in mercy tell me--have you such a thing as the
"Strawberry Leaves" in your eye?

_Cox._ No!

_Box._ Then we _are_ brothers!

[_They rush into each other's arms._

_Cox._ Of course, we stop where we are?

_Box._ Of course!

_Cox._ For between you and me, I'm rather partial to the House.

_Box._ So am I--I feel quite at home in it.

_Cox._ Everything so clean and comfortable!

_Box._ And I'm sure its Mistress, Mrs.--ahem!--from what little
_I've_ seen of her, is very anxious to do her best.

_Cox._ So she is--and I vote, Box, that we stand by her!

_Box._ Agreed! (_winks._) There's my hand upon it--join but yours--agree
that the House is big enough to hold us both, then Box----

_Cox._ And Cox----

_Both._ Are satisfied! [_Curtain._

* * * * *

FACT, OR FUNK?

SIR,--Will you permit me to protest against the shocking insecurity of
life and property in London? What are the Police doing? Only yesterday I
was walking, _in the middle of the day_, in a rather quiet road in this
suburb, when a _highway robber_, disguised as an ordinary beggar, asked
me for a copper! His look was _most forbidding_, and he put his hand
under his coat in a way that convinced me he was about to _draw a
revolver_! I at once gave him my purse, with half-a-crown in it, which
seemed to pacify him, and I am convinced that I owe my life to my
_presence of mind_. The shock, however, has quite prostrated me, and my
medical adviser has already paid me _three visits_, on the strength of
it, and says I need "careful watching for some time." He has very kindly
put off a holiday, in order to watch me, which is sufficient to prove
what a _diabolical outrage_ I have been the victim of!
Yours, indignantly,
_Cozynook, Sydenham._ TABITHA GRUNDY.

DEAR MR. PUNCH,--We are coming to a really awful state of things in the
Strand! A friend of mine (wh