matter of competitive examinations, and the
comparative weight of testimonials for secretaryships
and the like; some in their endeavours to
edge up to a secure foothold among the "staff"
of a daily paper say, or to the still higher ledge
of editorial authority; and others throw up
stones nightly over the footlights, aiming at
public favour and histrionic success, yet never
winning their cast, and always tumbling backward
among the scene-shifters.

Many other Sisyphusian ways of wasting
time and energies remain uncatalogued here,
but painfully rampant in the daily lives of men
and women. Pictures perseveringly sent to an
unappreciating hanging committee, or as
perseveringly exhibited to a non-purchasing public;
books industriously laid on the tables of yawning
readers; manuscripts hopefully sent to denying
publishers; articles deluging the tables of
fastidious editors; operas at which the prima
donna stops her ears and the conductor tears his
hair; sublime bits of poetry cut up into mincemeat
by merciless critics; theories with only
one wooden leg to stand on, and that a shaky
one; "points" at which the pit laughs when it
should weep; pleadings which turn the jury to
the right when it was desired to turn them to
the left; are not all these Sisyphusian stones
toilsomely dragged up-hill, only to come down
again with a thud heavy enough to break a man's
back, if, by chance, striking the arch? Misdirected
energy, wasted strength, disappointed
ambition, frustrated effort, and dreams taken
for realities, are all mere Sisyphusian stones—
from the barren labour of dragging which
uphill may common sense and the faculty of correct
social engineering keep me and you, my brother,
my friend!

          A LIFT IN THE WORLD.

WHEN for days, and even weeks, my eyes
had rested every morning regularly on the
advertisements of THE ROYAL METROPOLIS PALACE
COMPAny (LIMITED, indeed, only as regards
liability), and read the reckless flaming way in
which the advantages of the proposed establishment
were introduced to the public—spreading
over half columns and columns of newspapers,
I little thought the day would come when my
whole happiness would be curiously connected
with that famous speculation. As I read of the
four hundred beds they were to "put up," and
of the enormous dining-room, where the four
hundred guests could be feasted; of the ladies'
sitting-room, decorated in the Arabesque manner
by Owen Jones; and of the spacious hall, the
telegraphy, the "grand stair," the great pond
that was laid out upon the roof, and, above all,
of the magic "lift" which so mysteriously carried
human beings up to the top flight of all—I little
dreamed that a theatre was about being built
which was to be the scene of a drama full of the
strangest and most absorbing interest for me.

Latterly, business, travel, and what not, had
necessitated my absence from home for nearly
two years. One of the reasons for this prolonged
sojourn I must not conceal. From early
youth—even from a time preceding early
youth—I had never been "strong," as it is
called. Unfortunately, one night, long after
both these stages had been gone through, I had
sat up a whole night on the deck of a steamer,
in defiance of warnings and remonstrances.
It was a romantic night, and the time passed
very sweetly indeed; but towards morning
heavy dews came on, which settled on my
chest. In a week, "marked pulmonary symptoms"
set in, to use my doctor's phrase; and in
a month I had been "brought round," to use
another of his phrases, with the exception of a
confirmed difficulty of breathing. He said it
was a tendency to asthma; it struck me as
being entitled to all the honours of that
description. It soon became so troublesome that I
was recommended to go about and travel—
which I did.

I came home by Ostend. The morning on
which I got down to the port was a very "stiff"
one, and the packet lay outside the harbour.
We had to get on board in boats. We got
to the boat—we had to descend a very slippery
ladder. I got down safely, and saw that a fresh
gay young lady in screams of laughter was
following, in that natural embarrassment about
her dress which seems always to attend on
the operations of ladies descending ladders or
companion-stairs. She had a dressing-case in
one hand, a gepecke, as the Germans have it, of
shawls and cloaks in the other, and she came
down facing the audience. I ran—that is,
got up—to her assistance, kept the dress well
down; and, though I was rising and falling like
a fisherman's float, owing to the rocking of
the boat, I fancy I performed a real service.
Her dressing-case was stowed away under a
bench; with the assistance of a lurch, the
young lady herself was settled into her seat
with much laughter and enjoyment. A few
miserable-looking passengers—ghastly by
anticipation looking with disgust on the raw
sea and open boat, and accepting the ladder
as though it were the ladder of a scaffold, were
assisted down, and then the boat, spreading an
Indian ink coloured sail, began to swirl and
roll through the waters.

The little incident of a dressing-case and the
descent of the ladder was quite sufficient to
justify a travelling intimacy. We were
delightfully pleasant during that little voyage in
the open boat. She was a hoiden, and wished
the sail to be stretched tightly, so as "to make
the boat," she said, "lean well over." The
sailors were inclined to gratify her, admiring
her spirit and relish for nautical matters. But
the rueful passengers, ill already, and whose
travelling-caps seemed like the nightcaps of
invalids, protested with anger and surliness
against any such tricks. We both laughed
more and more; and, when we got to the delicate-
looking airy little French steamer which was
lying far out, we were in high good humour with
each other. I thought that she was travelling