t take it
like this.

_Officious Bystander._ He means the Mansion House. I should think that
would find the Lord Mayor without much difficulty, wouldn't it?

_Miss R. (chillingly)._ Can't say, I'm sure. (_To Servant._) Go back and
ask your Master if he means Mansion House, to say so.

_Germ. S. (blankly)._ He is goned avay--he vill not be pack undil
efening.

_Miss R._ Then ask him, _then_.

_Germ. S._ I zink it vas imbortant--eef you gould dry at ze Mansions
haus, berhaps----?

_Miss R._ I've no authority to put in anything beyond what's given me to
send--if your Master _will_ give an insufficient address, it's not my
fault, and you can tell him so.

_Off. Bystander (to Miss R.)_ But hang it all! There's only one Lord
Mayor, in London at all events!

_Miss R._ How do I know it's for London at all?

_Bystander._ I should have thought you might have _risked_ it!

_Miss R._ I can't help what you would have thought, Sir; I know my own
business. (_To Germ. S._) I've given you my answer.

[_Exit_ German Servant _resignedly, his idea of a Lord Mayor somewhat
lowered_; Miss REDTAPE _stamps letters with the serenity of conscious
rectitude. Scene closes in._

* * * * *

Arms and the (Police) Man.

"THRICE is he armed who hath his quarrel just."
But sure that Force in self-defence will fail
Whose only armour, 'gainst the critic thrust,
Is found to be "Black Mail."

* * * * *

VISITING LISZT.--The latest and one of the most interesting papers on
this erratic Abbe, is to be found in the _Month_ for July. _Tolle,
lege._ Also see _London Society_ for _The Hired Baby_. The story is
pathetic with here and there a vein of cynical humour. As for the
moral----well, you can't expect much of a moral from a hired baby.

* * * * *

A Dark Look-Out.

"There is no public career in India for the native of
India."--_Echo._

"THE world's mine oyster" 'tis in vain to sing,
If for a "Native" there's no "opening."

* * * * *

_CUCUMBER Chronicles_, by ASHBY STERRY. Light reading, easily carried,
and not at all cu-cumbersome. Nothing Melon-choly about them. Can't say
any more because it's so hot, and we've only just cut the cucumber. Of
course you must be in a cucumber frame of mind to thoroughly enjoy them.

* * * * *

TAG FOR THE THIRST