ndfall which has bolted upon me from the blue.

All the select boarders were speedily informed of my engagement, and the
males though profuse in their congratulations, did manifest their
green-eyed monster by sundry veiled chucklings and rib-pokings, while
the ladies--especially Miss SPINK--are become less pressing in their
attentions, and address me as "Prince" with increased frequency, and in
a tone of tittering acidulation.

This, however, is attributable to natural disappointment; for it was
notorious that all of them, even the least prepossessing, were on the
tiptoe of languishing expectancy that I should cast my handkerchief in
one of their directions. But the feminine nature is not capable of
sustaining the good-fortune of another member of their sex with
good-humoured complacency!

On the other hand, I enjoy many privileges and bonuses. I am permitted
to enter Mrs MANKLETOW'S private parlour _ad libitum_, and there
converse with my beloved, calling her "JESSIE," and even embrace her in
moderation. I may also embrace her Mother, and address her as "Mamma,"
which affords me raptures of a less tumultuous kind.

Moreover now, when I conduct my _inamorata_ to an entertainment, it is
no longer _de rigueur_ for any third party to impersonate a gooseberry!

The mention of entertainments reminds me that, a few evenings ago, I
escorted her to a music-hall, wherein, although I had previously
believed myself a past master in the shibboleth of London Cockneyisms
and technical terminology, I heard and saw much which was _au bout de
mon Latin_, and the head impossible to be made out of the tail.

_E.g._, there were two young lady-performers alleged by the programme to
be "Serios and Bone Soloists," whereas they were the reverse of
lugubrious; nor were their physiognomies fleshless or osseous; but, on
the contrary, so shapely and well-favoured that JESSIE did remonstrate
with me upon the perseverance with which I gazed at them.

And I could not at all find anyone to explain to me the difference
between a "_Comedian_" and a "_Comic_"; or a "_Comedian and Patterer_"
and an "_Eccentric Comedian_"; or a "_Society Belle_" and a "_Burlesque
Artiste_"; or, again, "_A Sketch Artiste_" and a "_Speciality Dancer_."
For to me they seemed precisely similar. There were "_four Charming
Lyric Sisters_," who performed a dance in long expansive skirts, and in
conclusion did all turn heels-over-head in simultaneity; but this, it
seems, wa