_Spurr._ (_to himself, as he sits down_). I wonder what we're supposed to be playing at! (_Aloud._) Well, what am I to read, eh?
_Miss Spelw._ (_placing an open copy of "Andromeda" in his hands with a charming air of deferential dictation_). You might begin with _this_--such a _dear_ little piece! I'm dying to hear _you_ read it!
_Spurr._ (_as he takes the book_). I'll do the best I can! (_He looks at the page in dismay._) Why, look here, it's _Poetry_! I didn't bargain for that. Poetry's altogether out of my line! (Miss SPELWANE _opens her eyes to their fullest extent, and retires a few paces from him; he turns over the leaves backwards until he arrives at the title-page_.) I say, this is rather curious! Who the dickins is CLARION BLAIR? (_The company look at one another with raised eyebrows and dropped underlips._) Because I never heard of him; but he seems to have been writing poetry about my bull-dog.
_Miss Spelw._ (_faintly_). Writing poetry--about your bull-dog!
_Spurr._ Yes, the one you've all been praising up so. If it isn't meant for her, it's what you might call a most surprising coincidence, for here's the old dog's name as plain as it can be--_Andromeda_!
[Illustration: "You might begin with _this_--such a _dear_ little piece!"]
[Illustration: "I'm coming to _take_ you!"]
The Downey ones, meaning thereby the photographers W. & D. "of that ilk," have produced some excellent photographic portraits in their fifth series recently published. THE CZAREVICH and The Right Hon. HENRY CHAPLIN, M.P., two sporting names well brought together, and both capital likenesses, though the Baron fancies that THE CZAREVICH has the best of it, for secret and silent as Mr. CHAPLIN is as a politician, yet did he never manage to keep so dark as he is represented in this picture. Here, too, is Mr. CHARLES SANTLEY--"_Charles our friend_"--looking like a mere boy with "a singing face," where "Nature, smiling, gave the winning grace." Mr. SYDNEY GRUNDY, _endimanché_, is too beautiful for words. But the picture of Mrs. BANCROFT, wearing (in addition to a trimmed fur cloak) a wonderful kind of "Fellah! don't-know-yar-fellah!" expression, at once surprised, pained, and hurt, does not at all represent the "little Mrs. B." whom the public knows and loves. "How doth the little busy Mrs. B. delight to bark and bite" might have been under this portrait, and DOWNEY must be more Downey another time, and give us a more characteristic presentment of this lively _comédienne_. The Right Hon. ARTHUR J. BALFOUR is the best of all. Capital. Just the man: "frosty but kindly." Then there is a first rate portrait of Miss FANNY BROUGH, and _after her_ comes the King of SAXONY!! O ALBERT of Saxony! after Miss FANNY BROUGH!! What'll Queenie CAROLINE say? Perhaps Messrs. DOWNEY, by kind permission of CASSELL & Co., will explain.