not spoil on a sheet of notepaper. When have you a free evening?

Always, Harry.

VIII.

_From Miss Isolt Sleight-Spender to Miss Marjorie Browne._

(Extract.)

... The Mudder is quite ill. It is all through that woman at No. 7. It
must be because we didn't call on her. But what an evening ruined!
Bogloffsky behaved like a perfect _pig_ and wouldn't play a note after
all the trouble he put us to; and when we got up from the table they say
he sniffed at his coffee and pulled some out of his pocket and rubbed it
in his hands to make the others smell the difference. Did you ever hear
of such a thing?....

IX.

_From Serge Bogloffsky to Stepan Bogloffsky, Moscow._

(Translation.)

_March_ 11th,

My Brother,--The Mazurka has been found beneath the lid of thy
pianoforte and is already despatched to thee--that pianoforte, alas!
which must now remain silent until thy longed-for return. Greet the
worthy Moschki and request him urgently to send the samples of tea, as I
have now an opportunity with a wealthy family which may make great
business.

That thy affairs prosper is my prayer. All the family embrace thee.

Serge.

* * * * *

"The gunlayer's eye followed it through the air, saw it splash
into the sea three hundred yards short of the target, and swore
softly."--_Answers._

The gunlayer would seem to have an eloquent eye.

* * * * *

A SOLDIER POLITICIAN.

A Biographical Note.

Considerable promise was shown in the speech delivered before the House
of Commons last week by Colonel CHURCHILL. His utterance had the effect
of instantly lifting that gallant gentleman from the obscurity of life
"somewhere in France" to something approaching notoriety. Surely few
soldiers have discovered such a gift of dialectical skill; and the Army
must feel proud to learn that it possesses an officer who shows himself
to be as able in the realm of politics as in the profession of arms.

Colonel CHURCHILL'S sensational _tour de force_ has aroused a natural
interest in his personality. He is still a young man, being only just on
the wrong side of forty. In choosing a military career he responded to
hereditary impulse, for he is a direct descendant of that great military
genius, the Duke of MARLBOROUGH. He entered the army in 1895, when
little more than a boy. After seeing service in Cuba and India he fought
in the Egyptian Campaign of 1898, and