[Illustration]

"What shall he have who kills the bull?" "The Dear! the Dear!"
meaning, of course, _Ellen Lucy Ashton_ aforesaid. After this all
goes well. Acting excellent all round--or nearly all round, the one
exception being, however, the very much "all-round" representative
of _Lady Ashton_, whose misfortune it is to have been selected for
this particular part. Scenery lovely, and again and again must HAWES
MCCHAVEN be congratulated on the beautiful scene of The Mermaiden's
Well (never better, in fact), Act III. The love-making bit in this
Act is charming, and the classic Sibyl, _Ailsie_, superb. Nothing in
stage effect within our memory has equalled the pathos of the final
_tableau_. It is most touching through its extreme simplicity.

The Haymarket has re-opened with the odd mixture of the
excellent French _Abbé Constantin_ and the weak, muddle-headed,
Tree-and-Grundy-ised "village Priest," known as the _Abbé Dubois_,
or "_Abbé Do Bore_," as 'ARRY might call him. Changes are in
contemplation, and may have been already announced. Whatever they may
be, it is some consolation to learn that this Tree-and-Grundy-ised
French Abbé is not likely to be a "perpetual Curate."

* * * * *

MR. PUNCH'S PRIZE NOVELS.

NO. II.--BURRA MURRA BOKO.

(_BY_ KIPPIERD HERRING, _AUTHOR OF "SOLDIERS' TEA," "OVER THE