that he (like poor old _Trotty Veck_) leapt to his feet, and broke the
spell that bound him.

* * * * *

"Yes, that is still the true Spirit of the Chimes," mused _Mr. Punch_,
as he took pen in hand to open up his new Volume. "And that's the
spirit I hope to keep up right through the twelve months of just-born
Eighteen Hundred and Ninety-two, which I trust may be--with my willing
assistance,

A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YOU!!!"

* * * * *

OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.

One of the Baron's Critical Faculty sends him his opinion of our Mr.
DU MAURIER's latest novel, which is also his first. And here let it be
published _urbi et orbi_ that there is no truth whatever in a report
which appeared in an evening paper to the effect that Mr. DU MAURIER,
however retiring he may be, was about to retire or had retired
from _Mr. Punch's_ Staff. The _St. James's Gazette_ has already
"authoritatively" denied the assertion; and this denial the Baron
for _Mr. Punch_, decisively confirms. Now, to the notice of the book
above-mentioned. Here it is:--

[Illustration]

"There has been a certain deliberateness in Mr. DU MAURIER's incursion