s shared your sadness;
Now on this bright Betrothal-Day
Your gladness he acclaims--with gladness!

* * * * *

How is Mr. F. LUKE FILDES, R.A.?--In excellent health we sincerely
hope, but from seeing daily, in the front sheet of the _Times_, an
advertisement commencing "The Doctor after LUKE FILDES, R.A." Many
friends began to feel anxious. We are glad to be able to add, that, in
answer to the numerous inquiries made at 39, Old Bond Street, a most
satisfactory report has been obtained.

[Illustration: "HONOURS EASY."

_First Undergraduate._ "I SAY, OLD MAN, DID YOU WIN YOUR MONEY?"

_Second Un._ "'COURSE NOT; WON SOMEBODY ELSE'S. _YOU_ LOST _YOUR_
COIN, DIDN'T YOU?"

_First Un._ "MY COIN! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? I LOST THE
GUV'NOR'S!"]

* * * * *

MUSE v. MECHANIC.

["Mr. NORMAN GALE--the Muse of orchards and pretty girls with polished
knees; a charm often left unsung."--_Mr. Andrew Lang on the Poems of
"A Country Muse."_]

"A Country Muse" sings, if you please,
Of pretty girls "with polished knees"!
One would not quite demolish
The graphic rhymester's stock-in-trade,
But if bare knees must be displayed,
He _might_ forego the polish.

It smacks of fustian! Workmen's "bags"
Are very "polished" where the "sags"
From salient joints protuberant,
Grow shiny with continual friction;
But "polished knees" in poet's diction
Strike one as too exuberant.

Say varnished elbows, burnished knuckles,
And you'll elicit scornful chuckles
From Muse and from Mechanic!
Selections from the terms of trade
Would put, I'm very much afraid,
Parnassus in a panic.

The bards are sometimes rather free
With feminine anatomy;
Their catalogues erotic
Of pretty girls' peculiar "points,"
Their eyes and limbs, and curves and joints,
Are often idiotic.

But if we must be told, sometimes,
Ladies have limbs, then that your rhymes
May not offend or fog any,
Don't _mechanise_ a maiden's charms;
Leave "polishing" to legs and arms
Of walnut or mahogany.

* * * * *

RHYMES ON THE DECAY OF ROMANCE.

(_Suggested by Mr. Frederic Harrison's recent Article in "The
Forum."_)

Oh, list to Mr. HARRISON lamenting from _The Forum_,
Imagination done to death by latter-day decorum!
"Good boys and girls" we've all become, and modern men and maidens