Quant à POPPOT personne n'a soupçonné sa complicité dans ce crime
gigantesque. Lui et JANE se soûlent paisiblement du matin an soir
devant le buffet du Pétrolium, en amis. Ils deviennent tous les jours
plus pauvres, plus paresseux, et plus poivres. Ainsi c'est facile de
prévoir leur fin:--

L'hôpital, trente pages de délire alcoölique, et la fosse commune.

_Note de l'Auteur_.--C'est mon intention irrévocable de finir ma
vingtaine de romans sur la famille OGWASH, et je compte avec plasir
offrir les dix-neuf à suivre à mon ami estimé, _Ponche_.

* * * * *

LISTENING TO THE GENTLE KOOEN.

_Maid Marian_ is "a Comic Opera in Three Acts," at least so I gather
from the title-page of the book and from the programme of the Prince
of Wales's Theatre; though where the comicality comes in, except
occasionally with Mr. MONKHOUSE, it would require _Sam Weller's_ "pair
o' patent double million magnifyin' gas microscopes of hextra power"
to detect. Mr. LE HAY, too, has nothing like the opportunity which was
given him in _Prince Bulbo_. Now, when in a so-called Comic Opera your
two principal low comedians have very little to do, say, or sing, and
when that little is not of a particularly side-splitting character,
and when the plot is not replete with comic situations, such a work
must depend for its success on the freshness of its melodies, on
the popularity of its _artistes_, and on the excellence of its
_mise-en-scène_.