and Mr. RELPH made him
look like it.

I was disappointed that Mr. PHILIP MERIVALE should have had no better
chance than was afforded by the part of a dumb servant for the display
of that delightful personality which so shone in his _Cassio_ and his
_Doughty_; but he was quietly admirable in the most thrilling scene of
all--outside the Shoji of _Yo-San_. One missed the fine performance of
Miss HILDYARD as the outcast Geisha, with its suggestion of SADI YAKKO's
manner.

The play was again admirably mounted, and the final scene of reunion in
the clouds (reached after an interval where every minute, by Greenwich
time, was a hundred years) contrived to escape the banality which
commonly attends these transfigurations. I was glad, too, to observe
that, in the code of etiquette which prevails in "the first Celestial
Heaven," the European habit of osculation is recognised; though it seems
that you have to go through a very hell of a time before you get to it.

O. S.

* * * * *

[Illustration: _Burglar_ (_holding jewel-case_). "Sorry to trouble yer,
Mum, but would yer mind helping me choose a present for the Missus? It's
her birthday termorrer."]

* * * * *

THE OLD MASTER.

As these things go, I reckon our sale went pretty well. Just before
closing time we held a rubbish auction, with Ginger in the chair. Ginger
would make an absolute Napoleon among auctioneers. He can bully, lie,
despair, wheedle and take you into his confidence in one breath.

He had sold four table-centres and a pair of babies' boots for songs
when Mrs. James Allen came up to his platform and explained a parcel
which she handed up in agitated whispers.

Ginger accepted it with a whistle that was not without its moral effect
on the mass. He released it from its wrappings reverently and, after a
short scrutiny, spake out.

"We have here, ladies and gentlemen, what I have no hesitation in
regarding as the gem of the sale. It has by a highly unfortunate
mischance lain hidden up to five minutes ago. It is nothing less, in
fact, than an indisputably genuine Van Ruiter--(sensation)--which
Colonel Allen has very nobly consented to sacrifice for--for the
splendid cause which has assembled us here to-day. (Applause.) This
little canvas, ladies and gentlemen, apart from being an authenticated
example of such an artist as Van Ruiter, is a possession which any man
might be proud of. It is calle