e situation became too
much for Miss Gertrude Hansombody, another of the students. She began
to titter, went on to laugh uncontrollably, then to clench her hands and
sob.

"Subject: Hysterics!" called the lecturer. "Treatment: Be firm with
the patient, hold her firmly by the wrists and threaten her with cold
water--"

He spoke to empty benches. The rest of his pupils had escaped from the
room and were now on their way home, and running for dear life.

I do not expect that St. John of Jerusalem will figure prominently in
our Primrose fete. My reason for saying so is an urgent letter just
received from Sir Felix, who wishes to confer with me in the course of
the day.

COX _VERSUS_ PRETYMAN.

We are not litigious in Troy, and we obey the laws of England cheerfully
if we sometimes claim to interpret them in our own way. I leave others
to determine whether the Chief Constable's decision, that one policeman
amply suffices for us, be an effect or a cause, but certain it is that
we rarely trouble any court, and almost never that of Assize.

This accounts in part for the popular interest awakened by the suit of
Cox _versus_ Pretyman, heard a few days ago at the Bodmin Assizes. I
say "in part," because the case presented (as the newspapers phrase it)
some unusual features, and differed noticeably from the ordinary Action
for Breach of Promise. "No harm in that," you will say? Indeed no; and
we should have regarded it as no more than our due but for an
apprehension that the conduct alleged against the defendant concerned us
all by compromising the good name of our town.

At any rate, last Wednesday found the streets full of citizens hurrying
to the railway station, and throughout the morning our stationmaster had
difficulty in handling the traffic. The journey to Bodmin is not a long
one as the crow flies, but, as our carpenter, Mr. Hansombody, put it,
"we are not crows, and, that being the case, naturally resent being
packed sixteen in a compartment." Mr. Hansombody taxed the Great
Western Company with lack of foresight in not running excursion trains,
and appealed to me to support his complaint. I argued (with the general
approval of our fellow-travellers) that there was something heartless in
the idea of an excursion to listen to the recital of a woman's wrongs,
especially of Miss Cox's, whom we had known so long and esteemed.
Driven from this position, Mr. Hansombody took a fresh stand on the
superi