Sheridans, and, after dinner, Sheridan seemed preoccupied ; and when Creevy rallied him about it, Sheridan said, 'The fact is, Creevy, that just before your carriage drove up to our door a letter had arrived, acquainting Mrs. Sheridan and me that a sum of money had been left us. We had just time to agree, solemnly agree, that we would not breathe a syllable about it to anyone; and it is only my certain and entire conviction that Mrs. Sheridan upstairs is at this moment telling the good news to Mrs. Creevy which justifies me in telling it to you down here.' On another occasion Sheridan was rather bored by the society of a lady who wished to go out walking with him ; but a lucky shower of rain coming on, they were obliged to remain in doors, so he escaped the infliction. After a short time, however, it began to clear up, and Sheridan stole to the door to escape; on this the lady also got up, saying, ‘Ah, I see there's a little blue sky now.' 'Yes, there is,' said Sheridan ; ‘enough for one, but not enough for two.'

REGRET.

'Mild is the parting year, and sweet

The odour of the falling spray ;
Life passes on more rudely fleet,

And balmless is its closing day.

I wait its close, I court its gloom,

But mourn that never must there fall

Or on my breast or on my tomb

The tear that would have sooth'd it all.'

W. S. Landor (1775-1864).

A PORTRAIT BY VELASQUEZ.

'A dwarf seated in a heap on the ground, with a book on his knee, and an inkstand at his feet.

'There were differences among Philip's dwarfs which Velasquez perceived with his keen, artistic intelligence, and profound observation of mankind; one of them was merely silly, another scowled hatred and envy from under his beetling brows, but this one whose image is here before us bears the pain of a nobler suffering. O, sad and thoughtful face, looking out upon us from the serious canvas of Velasquez, though the grave has closed upon thee for two hundred years, we know what were thy miseries! To be the butt of idle princes and courtiers, and, worse than that, to be treated by the most beautiful women as a thing that could have no passion, to be admitted to an intimacy which was but the negation of thy manhood, to have ridicule for thy portion, and buffoonery for thy vocation, and yet to be at the same time fully conscious of an inward human dignity, continually outraged, of a capacity for learning and for thought!' Mr. Philip G. Hamerton.

'Railing at a man for his bodily infirmities is like

beating a cripple with his own crutches.'

Thomas Fuller.

PLEAD For me.

'Stern Reason is to judgment come,
Array'd in all her forms of gloom;
Wilt thou, my advocate, be dumb?

No, radiant angel, speak and say
Why I did cast the world away.

'Why I have persevered to shun
The common path that others run,
And on a strange road journeyed on,

Heedless alike of wealth and power,

Of glory's crown and pleasure's flower.

'These once indeed seemed Beings Divine;
And they, perchance, heard vows of mine,
And saw my offerings on their shrine;

But careless gifts are seldom prized,
And mine were worthily despised.

'So with a weary heart I swore

To seek their altar-stone no more;

And gave my spirit to adore

Thee, ever present, phantom-thing;
My slave, my comrade, and my King!
Emily Brontë (1818–1848).

Lady P―

FAMILY PRAYERS.

used to tell a story of a household who were pious and proper, and had rather an absurd way of showing it. After prayers the male servants left the dining-room by one door, and the female servants by another. But, you know,' added she,' when they got to the bottoms of their respective staircases' (which met) 'the kissin' was like the crackin' o' whips.' Lady Plisped, which made the story funnier.

SOCIETY IN LONDON.

A distinguished diplomatist from the United States. of America, a very genial and social being, soon after his arrival in London made the round of the sights, Madame Tussaud's among the number. 'And what do you think of our wax-work?' said a friend. 'Well,' replied the General, 'it struck me as being very like any ordinary English party.'

UNBECOMING CURIOSITY.

A tradesman, to whom Talleyrand was indebted a considerable sum, having made many unsuccessful efforts to obtain payment, planted himself in the porte cochère of the Prince's hotel, and resolutely accosted

him as he was entering his carriage. 'Que me voulezvous, monsieur?' asked the minister. Monsieur, je veux seulement savoir quand son Excellence voudrait bien me payer?' 'Vous êtes bien curieux,' observed his Excellency, pulling up the window.

NATURE.

'I don't know anything sweeter than this leaking in of Nature through all the cracks in the walls and floors of cities. You heap up a million tons of hewn rocks on a square mile or two of earth which was green once. The trees look down from the hill-sides and ask each other, as they stand on tiptoe-"What are these people about?" And the small herbs at their feet look up and whisper back-"We will go and see." Then the wind steals to them at night, and they go softly with it into the great city,-one to a cleft in the pavement, one to a spout on the roof, one to a seam in the marbles over a rich gentleman's bones, and one to a grave without a stone where nothing but a man is buried,—and there they grow, looking down on the generations of men from mouldy roofs, looking up from between the lesstrodden pavements, looking out through iron cemeteryrailings.

'Listen to them, when there is only a light breath stirring, and you will hear them saying to each other—