SIMPSON'S SNIPE 



" Who is Mr Simpson ? " asked my wife, tossing a 

 letter across the breakfast-table. This same little 

 lady opens my correspondence with the sang-froid 

 of a private secretary. 



'' Who is Mr Simpson ? " she repeated. ''If he 

 is as big as his monogram, we shall have to widen 

 all the doors, and raise the ceilings, in order to let 

 him in." 



The monogram referred to resembled a pyro- 

 technic device. It blazed in all the colours of the 

 rainbow, and twisted itself like the coloured worsted 

 in a young lady's first sampler. 



" Simpson," I replied, in, I must confess, a 

 tremulous sort of way, " is a very nice fellow, and 

 a capital shot." 



" I perceive that you have asked him to shoot." 



" Only for a day and a night, my dear." 



" Only for a day and a night ! And where is 



Willie to sleep, and where is Blossie to sleep ? 



You know the dear children are in the strangers' 



rooms for change of air, and really I must say it is 



I E 53 



