humorous
remark--about the "weaker sex" being really stronger--which I fancy
will be effective, but I can't think of another. Would _one_ good joke
of that sort be sufficient? _A propos_ of the lady marksman at Bisley,
I should like to advise all ladies to "try the Butts," only I am
afraid this might be taken for a reference to the President of the
Divorce Division. How could I work the Jackson case in neatly? Would
it be allowable to pin my speech on the wedding-cake, and read it off?
Also, could I wear a mask? Any hints would be welcomed by--BEST MAN.

* * * * *

NOT QUITE POLITE.--The Manager of the Shaftesbury Theatre advertises
"three distinct plays at 8.15, 9.15, and 10." Distinct, but not quite
clear. Anyhow, isn't it rather a slur on other Theatres where it
implies the plays, whether at 8.15, 9.15, or 10, are "indistinct."

* * * * *

SOME CIRCULAR NOTES.

_Prospect of Holiday--An Entree--A Character
in the Opening--Light and Leading--French
Exercise--Proposition--Acceptation--Light
Comedian--Exit--Jeudi alors--The Start_.

CHAPTER I.

I am sitting, fatigued, in my study. I have not taken a holiday this
year, or last, for the matter of that. Others have; I haven't. Work!
work! work!--and I am wishing that my goose-quills were wings ("so
appropriate!" whisper my good-natured friends behind their hands to
one another), so that I might fly away and be at rest. To this they
(the goose-quills, not the friends) have often assisted me ere now.
Suddenly, as I sit "a-thinking, a-thinking," my door is opened, and,
without any announcement, there stands before me a slight figure,
of middle height, in middle age, nothing remarkable about his dress,
nothing remarkable about his greyish hair and close-cut beard,
but something very remarkable about his eyes, which sparkle with
intelligence and energy; and something still more remarkable about the
action of his arms, hands, and thin, wiry fingers, which suggests the
idea of his being an animated semaphore worked by a galvanic battery,
telegraphing signals against time at the rate of a hundred words a
minute, the substantives being occasionally expressed, but mostly
"understood,"--pronouns and prepositions being omitted wholesale.

"What! DAUBINET!" I exclaim, he being the last person I had expected
to see, having, indeed, a letter on my desk from him, dated yesterday
and delivered this mor