mania for
mutilating animals?"

_Counsel_ (explaining). "No, my Lord, the dog's-noses the witness
refers to is a form of alcoholic stimulant--ahem!--gin, I believe, with
some other ingredient, such as ale, mixed with it."

_His Lordship_. "Oh, very well."

Counsel. "Did the witness consider the Lord Mayor of London was sober?"

_Sailor_. "Do you mean that there old cove in the red gown?"

_Judge_ (excitedly, and in needless alarm). "Of whom is he speaking?"

_Counsel_ (hastening to explain). "The Lord Mayor, my Lord. I asked
the witness did he consider the Lord Mayor sober upon the night they
met."

_Witness_. "Yes, he was sober enough, but I think he was balmy, and I
shall always think he was balmy."

_Counsel_. "Thank you, that is sufficient; you can stand down."

Cissie Laurie, upon being called, went skittishly into the witness box,
curtseyed to the Court, and blew a kiss to the Judge.

His Lordship glared at the lady in shocked amazement.

Upon being questioned, Mrs. Laurie confided that most of her early life
had been passed playing in Pantomimes, therefore she had always been
fond of dancing. At the present time she kept a lodging-house for
theatricals, and the only chance she had of indulging in her old and
favourite pastime seemed to be to dance attendance upon these lodgers.

"Never mind what you do indoors," suggested Counsel. "I want to know
what you do out of doors, what you did out of doors on the particular
night in question when you met the Lord Mayor of London."

"Well, I felt young and girlish," confessed Cissie. "The first floor
back and the second floor front had both gone out, and the house seemed
dull with no lights and nobody in it."

"Never mind about the house or the lighting of it," interrupted
Counsel. "You went out for a walk in the streets of London."

"When I got to Trafalgar Square," continued Cissie, "I felt skittish,
thoughtless and jolly, and I could 'ave declared he laughed at me and
then winked."

_Judge_ (interrupting). "The witness tells her story very badly. Who
laughed and winked at her? The Lord Mayor?"

_Counsel_ (hastily). "No, no, my Lord, not the Lord Mayor; the Lion."

_Judge_. "Oh, well, why doesn't she say so?"

Then proceeded Cissie, heedless of all interruptions--

"I sees the wreath round his neck, and I at once thought of the Russian
dancers----"

_Judge_. "Tut, tut, tut! what has the fact of the Lord Mayor of London
having