"What is that for?" inquired one or two.

"Oh, my ring has a peculiar virtue, it tells me
what is good for me. Ah! what do I see? my
ruby changes colour. Fetch me a clean glass.
And he filled it with water from a caraffe. "No,"
sir, leave the beer. I'll analyse it in my room
after dinner; I'm a chemist."

Dr. Wolf changed colour, and was ill at ease.
Here was a bold and ugly customer. However,
he said nothing, and felt sure his morphia could
not be detected in beer by any decomposer but
the stomach. Still he was rather mystified.

In the evening Alfred came dressed into the
drawing-room, and found several gentlemen and
ladies there. One of the ladies seemed to attract
the lion's share of male homage. Her back was
turned to Alfred; but it was a beautiful back,
with great magnificent neck and shoulders, and
a skin like satin; she was tall but rounded and
symmetrical, had a massive but long and shapely
white arm, and perfect hand: and masses of thick
black hair sat on her grand white poll like a
raven on a marble pillar.

It was not easy to get near her; for the mad
gentlemen were fawning on her all round; like
Queen Elizabeth's courtiers.

However, Dr. Wolf, seeing Alfred standing
alone, said, " Let me introduce you," and took
him round to her. The courtiers fell back a little.
The lady turned her stately head, and her dark
eyes ran lightly all over Alfred in a moment.

He bowed, and blushed like a girl. She
curtseyed composedly and without a symptom of
recognition—deep water runs still—and Dr. Wolf
introduced them ceremoniously.

"Mr. Hardie—Mrs. Archbold."

DON'T KILL YOUR SERVANTS.

I OVERHEARD, as I walked down a country
lane, this pastoral dialogue between two
shepherds, who were not attired in Leghorn hats
with cherry-coloured ribbons, and who did not
wear plush breeches, silk stockings, and dancing-
pumps wilh yellow cheesecakes pinned over the
toes:

"A shillin' apiece for twoads! He! he!
ho! ho!"

"And a penny apiece for frogs! He! he!
haw!"

"Ain't he a rum start?"

And I said to them, " Gentlemen, who is a
rum start?"

"Squoire!"

" I beg your pardon?"

"Whoat for, Skinny?"

"Who is buying toads and frogs?"

"Squoire!"

Bestowing upon each youth a penny, I
requested that he would expend it upon schooling,
and that neither of them would in future
conversation address as Skinny a gentleman who
happened to be slim. I believe that twopence a
week is the payment made for education by
young individuals of this class, and that the
introduction of the half-time principle, of which I
have heard something in the House of Commons,
would, in fact, would—just so.

It is very difficult for me to tell this bore of
a story, but I dare say some fellow will make it
right for me, and all that sort of thing. You
see, the fact of the matter is, I don't know.
Robin isn't a bad fellow in town, he certainly
is very particular about his dinners; but when
I had gone a little further down the lane, I found
a little girl with a creature, that she called a
hedgepig, wrapped up in her pinafore, and
ascertained from her that this too was for the
squire, and that he gave sixpence apiece for
hedgepigs. From this little pig-dealer I further
ascertained that the squire was my brother
Robin, at whose house in Turmutshire I was,
for the first time in my life, going to spend a
month, and she said that he was " main fond
o' twoads." Knowing too well that he was a
good fellow with strong new-fangled notions,
and that he had been to France, I very decidedly
lost appetite. For he is just the sort of man
who will not stop at frogs, when he has once
convinced himself that frogs are eatable.

I had come down to enjoy the country, of
which I see very little. My man, Jenkinson,
went down the day before, with boxes and all
that sort of thing. I had nothing but time on
my hands, and there I was, sauntering down
the lane three hours before I was expected.
There was a great noise being made overhead,
by flocks of what I believed to be blackbirds,
but from information since received, know to be
rooks. The day was warm, there was running
water introduced by the side of the path, and
some niceish little flowers had been set, with
much skill, underneath the hedges. The whole
effect of the lane was very good. It wanted
breadth, and was in parts a little smudgy; still,
I do not hesitate to say that it was well put
together. Robin tells me that the effect all
comes of itself; but I flatter myself that I
know Beverley's work when I see it, and if
Squire Robin hasn't had Beverley down to
make the set scenes round about his place, he
may have had Grieve or Fenton. In fact, he
half confesses this; for, when I say that I expect
to come upon his transformation scene some
day, he tells me that if I want to see that. I
must stop with him till Christmas.

When I had passed the lodge gate, there was
a twittering and singing of birds, that reminded
me strongly of the garden scene in the Hugue
nots. Presently I diverged from the path, to
look at a stone tower, built upon a sort of high
loo-table, which was also made of stone. The
tower was full of holes, and every hole was a
bird's-nest. Jenkinson, by the exercise of his
own valuable instinct, had, by smell, sight, or a
sixth sense proper to his calling, perceived me,
though he was far away inside the house. I
have since learnt that a snail has nearly the
same sense of the ripening of an apricot. At
the moment the lodge gate swung after me, he
rose, I believe, from his beer in the kitchen, and
made straight towards me, although shrubs,