it with chivalrous and stalwart manhood; and it is a standing
grievance to me that I have to clothe all this masculine escort in
coats and trousers and chimney-pot hats; worse than all, in the
evening dress of the period!--that I cannot surround my divinity with
a guard of honour more worthily arrayed!

Thus, of all my little piebald puppets, the one I value the most is my
pretty woman. I am as fond of her as Leech was of his; of whom,
by-the-way, she is the granddaughter! This is not artistic vanity; it
is pure paternal affection, and by no means prevents me from seeing
her faults; it only prevents me from seeing them as clearly as you do!

Please be not very severe on her, for her grandmother's sake. Words
fail me to express how much I loved her grandmother, who wore a
cricket-cap and broke Aunt Sally's nose seven times.

[Illustration: A PICTORIAL PUZZLE

TENOR WARBLER (_with passionate emphasis on the first word of each
line_)--
"_Me-e-e-e-e-e-t_ me once again, M-e-e-e-e-t me once aga-a-ain--"

_Why does the Cat suddenly jump off the Hearth-rug, rush to the Door,
and make frantic Endeavors to get out_?--_Punch_.]

Will my pretty woman ever be all I wish her to be? All she ought to
be? I fear not! On the mantelpiece in my studio at home there stands a
certain lady. She is but lightly clad, and what simple garment she
wears is not in the fashion of our day. How well I know her! Almost
thoroughly by this time--for she has been the silent companion of my