alking about?

_E._ (_pinches his cheek_). There you are horrid again. But you smile.
_Je te connais, mon brave._ [Greek: Gignosko se pai] (never mind the
accents). _Ich kenne dich, mein alter._ _Cognosco te, amice._ I know
you, old fellow. You are only chaffing. As if you had not discovered
that which all truly great indolence has taught ever since the first
star looked out and beheld chaotic vastness on every hand. For to say
something is what every puny whipster can do. To talk much, and in
many languages, and yet to have said nothing, that, my dear GILLIE, is
what all have striven for, but only one, gifted above his fellows
with magic power of weaving the gossamer thread of words, has truly
attained. For it is in that reconcilement of apparent opposites,
and in the cadenced measures of a musical voice, that the dignified
traditions of an aesthetic purity, repellent to the thin, colourless
lips of impotence, reside and make their home. But-- [Breaks off,
and lights a cigarette.

_G._ (_lighting a cigarette_). Is that really so?

_E._ Yea, even as LUCIAN-- [Short notes, to be afterwards filled
out:--Throw in Hector, the Myrmidons, COLERIDGE, RUSKIN, OHNET, LEWIS
MORRIS, ARISTOTLE, LIONARDO, St. Anne, Juno, Mr. HOWELLS, LONGINUS,
FRONTO, LESSING, Narcissus. Stir up with SHAKSPEARE and MILTON. Add
CICERO and BALZAC]

_G._ ERBERT, ERBERT, how learned you are, and how lovely! But I am
weary, and must away.

[He moves off. ERBERT attempts to detain him. In the end they
quarrel. ERBEBT breaks the banjo over GILNEST'S head.

_E._ You are a horrid pig, and I don't like you at all!

(Not to be continued.)

* * * * *

JAMES'S HAIR APPARENT.--Everyone recognises ex-President JAMES, author
of the Whistlerian book on _The Gentle Art of Making Enemies_, by his
distinguished white lock just over his forehead. No one dare call this
"a white feather," as he has never shown it. Some people looked upon
it as caused by JAMES'S powder. This is not so. It may be correctly
described as an illustration of "Locke on the Understanding."

* * * * *

ELECTROPHONOSCOPIC CHAT.

(_A LITTLE OF IT, PICKED UP AT THE OFFICE._ A.D. 1900.)

There must surely be some mistake. Here, what's this? This old
toothless hag, without her wig, is unknown to me! And why does she
address me as "ARCHIBALD"? I was expecting to see my beloved ARAMINTA.

Excuse me, but I think