gives us an opportunity of seeing a little more of Miss LOTTIE VENNE, to
whom the authors had not previously been generous. (I love Miss VENNE'S
voice and I love her manner of waving her arms in the air. It was
delightful to see and listen to her again.)

For the best parts of the first two Acts, then; for Miss LOTTIE VENNE'S
voice; above all, for Mr. A. W. BASKCOMB'S face, _My Aunt_ is worth
while. As _Aubrey Braxton_ Mr. BASKCOMB--the never-to-be-forgotten
_Slightly_ of so many Christmasses--goes through all the many troubles
of a hero of farce with his own inimitable air of hopeless resignation.
I hope that his efforts will not be unrewarded, and that the management
will find that, without rivalling the success of that other aunt,
Charley's, they will yet for some time be able to play to good "business
as usual."

M.

* * * * *

MR. PUNCH'S HOLIDAY STORIES.

III.--THE FIGHT OF THE CENTURY.

(Concluded.)

[_SYNOPSIS OF PRECEDING INSTALMENT:--The great boxing boom is at its
height. A fight arranged between Smasher Mike and the famous
heavyweight champion. Mauler Mills, is arousing intense excitement
throughout the country. Nothing whatever is known of the Smasher,
and the betting is therefore 100 to 1 against him. Young Lord
Tamerton is at this time in desperate financial straits. His bosom
friend, Ralph Wonderson, who is in love with his sister, the
beautiful Lady Margaret Tamerton, prevails upon him to wager heavily
on Smasher Mike, and undertakes to put him in the way of obtaining a
loan of L5,000 for this purpose. Their conversation is overheard by
an agent of Sir Ernest Scrivener,_ alias _Marmaduke Moorsdyke, who
is the mortal enemy of Wonderson and is plotting to get Lady
Margaret Tamerton in his power._]

The vast area of Corinthia was crammed with eager spectators, whose eyes
were concentrated with feverish intensity on the raised platform in the
centre of the hall. In the seats near the ring, for each of which a
hundred guineas had been charged, sat the cream of Britain's
aristocracy, including Lord Tamerton and Lady Margaret Tamerton, for
whom two tickets in a plain envelope had been left that morning.

At last the preliminaries came to an end and Smasher Mike, clad in a
claret-coloured dressing-gown with yellow facings, crawled through the
ropes and went to his corner. As he raised his face to the lights a
murm