"three distinct plays at 8·15, 9·15, and 10." Distinct, but not quite
clear. Anyhow, isn't it rather a slur on other Theatres where it
implies the plays, whether at 8·15, 9·15, or 10, are "indistinct."

* * * * *

SOME CIRCULAR NOTES.

_Prospect of Holiday--An Entrée--A Character
in the Opening--Light and Leading--French
Exercise--Proposition--Acceptation--Light
Comedian--Exit--Jeudi alors--The Start_.

CHAPTER I.

I am sitting, fatigued, in my study. I have not taken a holiday this
year, or last, for the matter of that. Others have; I haven't. Work!
work! work!--and I am wishing that my goose-quills were wings ("so
appropriate!" whisper my good-natured friends behind their hands to
one another), so that I might fly away and be at rest. To this they
(the goose-quills, not the friends) have often assisted me ere now.
Suddenly, as I sit "a-thinking, a-thinking," my door is opened, and,
without any announcement, there stands before me a slight figure,
of middle height, in middle age, nothing remarkable about his dress,
nothing remarkable about his greyish hair and close-cut beard,
but something very remarkable about his eyes, which sparkle with
intelligence and energy; and something still more remarkable about the
action of his arms, hands, and thin, wiry fingers, which suggests the
idea of his being an animated semaphore worked by a galvanic battery,
telegraphing signals against time at the rate of a hundred words a