Francesca prudently. "Now you cannot usurp the platform entirely,
my dear Pen. Listen to an English marriage notice from the Times.
It chances to be the longest one to-day, but there were others just
as remarkable in yesterday's issue.

"'On the 17th instant, at Emmanuel Church (Countess of Padelford's
connection), Weston-super-Mare, by the Rev. Canon Vernon, B.D.,
Rector of St. Edmund the King and Martyr, Suffolk Street, uncle of
bride, assisted by the Rev. Otho Pelham, M.A., Vicar of All Saints,
Upper Norwood, Dr. Philosophial Konrad Rasch, of Koetzsenbroda,
Saxony, to Evelyn Whitaker Rake, widow of the late Richard Balaclava
Rake, Barrister-at-law of the Inner Temple and Bombay, and third
surviving daughter of George Frederic Goldspink, C.B., of Sydenham
House, Craig Hill, Commissioner of Her Majesty's Customs, and
formerly of the War Office.'"

By the time this was finished we were all quite exhausted, but we
revived like magic when Salemina read us her contribution:-

"'A NAME ENSHRINED IN LITERATURE AND RENOWNED IN COMMERCE,--Miss
Willard, Waddington, Essex. Deal with her whenever you possibly
can. When you want to purchase, ask her for anything under the
canopy of heaven, from jewels, bijouterie, and curios to rare books
and high-class articles of utility. When you want to sell, consign
only to her, from choice gems to mundane objects. All transactions
embodying the germs of small profits are welcome. As a sample of
her stock please note: A superlatively exquisite, essentially
beautiful, and important lace flounce for sale, at a reasonable
price. Also a bargain of peerlessly choice character.--Six grandly
glittering paste cluster buttons, of important size, emitting