picking it out with one finger. Seem to have heard it before--what the
Dickens _is_ it? Recognise it as the "Mandolinata in E." Remember the
VOKES Family dancing to it long ago in the Drury Lane Pantomime. Not
exactly the tune one would expect to meet in a Cathedral.... Unbolting
behind doors. Nervous feeling. Half inclined to assure Porter
penitently that this shall not occur again. Wish him good-night
instead--pleasantly. Porter grunts--_un_pleasantly. Depressing to be
grunted at the last thing at night. To bed, chastened.

* * * * *

THE MOAN OF THE MUSIC-HALL MUSE.

[It is hinted that the vogue of the tremendously successful
but tyrannously ubiquitous "_Ta-ra-ra-Boom-de-ay!_" is
beginning, at last, to wane.]

_She museth upon "the Boom that waneth every day," and wondering what
she shall "star" with next, breaketh forth into familiar strains:--_

[Illustration]

AIR--"_What will you do, Love?_"

What shall I do now? My song was going
Like a tide flowing, all Booms beyond;
What shall I do, though, when critics hide it,
And cads deride it who're now so fond?
"Ta-ra-ra" chiding, "Boom-de-ay" deriding!--
Nought is abiding--that's sadly true!