/\N" OR "M" 249 



Would not the engagement be broken off at 

 once, and the lady obtain substantial damages 

 for slander from any decently sentimental 

 British jury ? Would not the least eloquent 

 counsel in the world find it an easy matter to 

 convict the luckless lover of any form of culpable 

 malfeasance, from simony to champetry ? 



Again, what view of Robert Browning's art 

 should we hold were he thus to describe his 

 Patriot's triumph: 



" It was stinkworts, stinkworts, all the way. 

 And polyanthuses (or, to be academically cor- 

 rect, polyanthi) mixed in my path like mad " ? 



Can we believe that if it had been truly said of 

 Bailey's heroine that 



" She wore a wreath of saxifrages. 

 That night when first we met/' 



we should ever have desired to renew the 

 acquaintance ? or that, had there been a bower 

 of calceolaria by Bendemeer's stream, the 

 nightingale would have sung round it all the 

 night long ? 



I will not labour the point, however, for I am 

 sure that by this time even the most unintelli- 

 gent of my readers must have caught some 

 glimpse of my meaning, and will agree wdth me 

 that the value attached to a name cannot lightJy 

 be disparaged. And if this is true in the case 



