that's a funny business, Mr. Beaufort.
Everybody is so amused. You began in the wrong
shop, sir. An Englishman's wife, sir. Not that
I think there's any harm in a little flirtation."

"Do you suppose I mind how the wretched
people here amuse themselves? They know
very little about my affairs, or that affair, I
can tell you."

"Well, if I might speak in a friendly way,
you know—- they'll be in in a moment—- I'd let
the thing drop. Awkward things may be said.
And Filby, you know, gives out that Wilkinson
is looking on and laughing, and is posted
up to everything. I must tell you, she is not
quite as simple a young lady as she looks."

"Then I could tell you, Mr. Dacres," said the
other, rising to go, " some little things that
would open your eyes, and open that gentleman's
eyes also. If I were to take two passages
in the next packet, I dare say you could not
guess for whom I would take one?"

"'Deed I could not," said Mr. Dacres,
laughing. " We never should here. Who is to
slip off next?"

"That gentleman may give out his story, if he
likes; but I could surprise him very much one
fine morning. If I were just to crook my
little finger, and give the signal, Mr. Dacres,
some one would follow me down to the packet
very cheerfully. So much for your gossiping
stories; so much do they know about it now!"

"Then you ought to blush for telling such a
thing, and I take leave to tell you you're a
shabby sort of admirer, Mr. Ernest Beaufort.
Ha, ha! Excuse my franchise, as our friends
here say. Must go out now, as I have a
little business. Come with me, my brave
caballero. You're a broth of a boy among the
ladies. Ha, ha! You don't mind my fun, do
you? So you have only to take a place in the
packet, eh? No, no. I wouldn't like to put
that to Lucy, sir; it wouldn't hang together."

"I don't understand you," said the young
man, colouring.

"I hold by what I say, and I could prove it
at any moment, too. I never speak without
the card. I have only to say the word, and
that lady———"

"Well, it's wonderful! Come along."

Mr. Dacres said afterwards he never was in
such a mortal fright, for he was sure the woman
would burst out, and there would be a scene.
"And I heard the dress give a rustle inside," he
said. The whole thing reminded him of Drury
Lane and Brinsley's lady behind the screen.
"And I think," added he, "I managed the whole
a little cleverly."

When Mr. Beaufort was gone, Mrs. Wilkinson
came out, a picture of shame, her eyes bent
on the ground. Lucy remained sensibly in the
little room.

"Don't speak—don't say another word, Mr.
Dacres," said Mrs. Wilkinson. " What am I
to do? Oh, that I should have come to such a
degradation! To hear a wretch like him daring
to speak of me in that way! But it is my own
folly, my own folly."

"He knows no better, my dear lady. Wait
until by-and-by. You saw how easy I took his
fine manners. I always ' smoked' him from the
first. We'll hear something about all this in a
day or two."

MIDGES IN OFFICE.

THE qualities of the midge family are
imperfectly appreciated by the world. To a
midge's gentle sting a fleabite is ferocious, and
a fleabite, as every one knows, is a synonym
for something insignificantly small. Uncle
Toby would never have opened the window,
and made his humane speech to a midge; for a
midge's titillation would have been unfelt.
This is when the insect discharges its proper
functions. But human midges are the small
people who are dangerous only when their
vocation is mistaken, and power is given them
for more than to flutter and to hum. Buffon's
remark on insects generally, that they " can
live a long time though deprived of those
organs which are necessary to the higher ranks
of nature," is eminently true of these midges.
Breaking a butterfly on a wheel would be
justifiable if the butterfly were placed in a position
to destroy hundreds of human beings, and make
life a burden to thousands more. Shake the
"painted dust" from creatures pitchforked into
place, and you behold a form of evil which is a
burning reproach to the House of Commons
and the country. The system under which
midges are especially dangerous, the system
which makes what is called " interest" the high
road to permanent appointments at the head
of government offices, whose nominal heads
go out with the ministry, is the direct cause of
more flagrant evils than it would be easy to
enumerate.

This system may give a Fribble the chief
prize of a department, and make social
qualifications a passport to office and to power.
Parliamentary puppets are thus the scapegoats of
the men really lax; and while the honourable
gentleman explains, or apologises, or defies the
House of Commons and the public, our friend
the midge smiles complacently from behind the
official canvas below, and pulls strings and
dictates the squeaks of his puppets, serenely
satisfied with a system which gives him a full share
of the halfpence, and apportions the blows and
jeers to his automaton partners. Since the
kings of England gave up whipping boys, there
has been nothing more humorously unjust than
to reward faithful party service by making it
the tool or the incubus of " abiding scribes;"
and since " farming" our taxes was abandoned,
there has been nothing more profligate than
giving members of the midge family valuable
appointments in return for private services.

Let us consider what an official midge, or
"abiding scribe," is, whom he represents, and
for what he is actually, though not nominally,
responsible. He is the board. Cabinet ministers
delegate their powers to him. The welfare,