e tent FRED and I took shelter in the thunderstorm.
However, before I could say a word, the little creature dropt the
nosegay in my lap; and laughing, ran away.

Such a beautiful _bouquet_! Had it been a thing of wild or even of
common garden flowers--but it was a _bouquet_ of exotics--and how were
gypsies to come by such things? Then something whispered to me--"stole
them."

I didn't like to throw the thing away; and as I remained meditating,
FRED came up. "Pretty flowers, LOTTY," said he.

"Yes: selected with taste--great taste, an't they?" said I; and I cannot
think what whim it was possessed me to go off in such praise of the
_bouquet_.

"Pretty well," said FRED.

"Pretty well! my dear FRED; if you'll only look and attend, you'll own
that the person who composed this _bouquet_ must have known all the true
effect of colours."

"Indeed," said FRED; as I thought very oddly; so I went on.

"Every colour harmonizes; the light, you see, falling exactly in the
right place; and yet everything arranged so naturally--so harmoniously.
The white is precisely where it should be, and"--

"Is it truly?" and saying this, FRED twitched from among the flowers a
note that like a mortal snake as I thought it lay there.

"Why, it's a letter!" I cried.

"It looks like it," said FRED.

"It was brought by a gypsey," said I; and I felt my face burning, and
could have cried. "It's a mistake."

"Of course," said FRED: "what else, my love? Of course, a mistake."

And then he gave me his arm, and we returned towards the Inn. FRED
laughed and talked; but somehow I felt so vexed: yes, I could have
cried; and still FRED was so cool--so very cool.

* * * * *

ANOTHER CHANGE IN FRANCE.

Every liberal-minded person will be glad to hear that LOUIS NAPOLEON is
about establishing baths and washhouses in Paris. The cause of order in
France has been threatened chiefly by the unwashed; and the EMPEROR will
promote the peace of society by causing that dangerous class to
disappear.

* * * * *

THE BREAKSPEARE TESTIMONIAL.

According to the _Athenaeum_, a Cardinal's hat is about to go round--in
obedience, however, to no new force or principle. Our learned
contemporary says:--

"There has been only one English Pope, and of him there has been
hitherto no public monument in the city over which he ruled. The
omission is now, it seems, to be rectified. A committee