"So I have heard; and, now, Mr. CHOSE, as I see that you have finished
your breakfast, I will put to you a purely personal question. Is it
true that you poisoned your grandmother, drowned your uncle, stifled
your niece, and hanged your brother-in-law?"

The Arctic Explorer pulled angrily at his moustache, and said
something about the reports to which I referred being exaggerated.

"And may I take it that you have never been in gaol for picking
pockets? And when it is said that you were turned out of a Club for
cheating at cards--"

But at this point I was assisted to take my leave with so much
abruptness, that I was forced to leave my last question but partially
formulated. On finding myself once more in the street, I noticed that
I was reclining in the gutter, bare-headed. A little later, however,
my hat was thrown after me.

* * * * *

PICTORIAL NOTE TO HAMLET.

[Illustration: HAMLET AS HE REALLY OUGHT TO BE, ACCORDING TO
SHAKSPEARE.]

"O that this too too solid flesh would melt!"

_Note_.--Shakespeare was the originator of the aesthetic expression
"Too, too."