fruit can be had for the asking. Tell GORSTY that, and WOLFFY can use
the information, if he likes, till I return. _Au revoir!_ Yours ever,

[Illustration: Transcriber's Note: "Grandolph, the Explorer."
rendered in script.]

* * * * *

QUEER QUERIES.--AUTHORSHIP.--I should be glad to know the name of
a Publisher of repute who would be likely to purchase for £1000 a
first-rate Sensational Novel? I have only written one chapter so
far, but I have the plot in my head, and I think a really able and
energetic Publisher would be able to judge of the work from a
small specimen. Which was the Firm that gave GEORGE ELIOT £5000 for
_Middlemarch?_ I should like to go to them.--NO JUGGINS.

* * * * *

LEAVES FROM A CANDIDATE'S DIARY.

_Billsbury, Tuesday, 3rd June._--We had an immense meeting here last
night, just to keep the enthusiasm going. We had done our best to
got a Cabinet Minister to come down, but they all had some excuse
or other, and we had to content ourselves with CARDEW, who, being an
Undersecretary, is the next best thing to the genuine Cabinet rose.
VULLIAMY came too. A most extraordinary chap that. Instead of being
offended at what I did with reference to his proposals for wholesale
illegality, he merely delivered his soul of what he called "a gentle
protest," and declared himself ready to do all he could to help me
to counteract the effects of my own obstinacy. There was considerable