ear of him again?" some one asked.

"Yes. When we reached New York I found him standing in his old place by
the aft wheel-house in a dazed sort of way, with apparently no intention
of going ashore; so I asked him what hotel he intended to stop at. His
only answer was to hand me a letter dated some days before:

"'JUNTA, Texas.

"'Kitty died last night. It is a boy, and is named after
you--her last wish.

"'PARKER.'

That was all the letter said, but as I looked at his white face and
burning eyes I saw it was what he had feared.

"As I bade him good-night at the hotel that evening he asked me, 'Do you
really feel sure that I could find her--there?'

"'Yes: she said so, did she not?' I replied.

"'I will try,' he said simply.

"The next morning they found him with a bullet-hole in his temple. He
had gone to find Kitty."

* * * * *

"Heads!" said Thornton as the boom swung over and the swirl from the
Idler's bow told us the wind had come. As I changed my place I caught
Miss Brogden's eye, and felt satisfied that Donaldson was forgiven.

LAWRENCE BUCKLEY.

A GREAT SINGER.

There are so few of them! The next generation will hardly understand how
great were some of the lately-vanished kings and queens of the lyric
drama. We who have passed middle age, who have heard Lablache, and
Tamberlik, and Jenny Lind, and Viardot Garcia, and Alboni, and Giuglini
in their prime, and Grisi, Mario, Sontag and Persiani with voices but a
little the worse for wear, can sadly contrast the vocal glories of the
past with those of the present. Who are the great singers of to-day? Two
or three _prime donne_ and as many baritones. There is not a single
basso living to suggest Lablache, not a tenor to revive the triumphs of
Rubini, Mario, Giuglini or the subject of the present article.

Gustave Roger, the celebrated French tenor, who so long reigned a king
at the Grand Opera of Paris, was a born Parisian. He was of gentle
blood, his uncle being Baron Roger, who was a member of the Chamber of
Deputies in the days of Louis Philippe. He was born in 1815, and was
originally destined for the legal profession. But the boy's destiny was
the stage. It is on record that, being sent to a provincial town where
there was no theatre to complete his studies, he got up a representation
on his own account, playing the