‘Wilberforce, my dear son,’ the voice said in its most sonorous accents, ‘dere is company come; you will excuse my interruptin’ you. De ladies an’ gentlemen dat we expec’ to dinner has begun to arrive. Dey is waitin’ to be introduced to de inheritor of de tree names most intimately connected wit de great revolution which I have had de pleasure an’ honour of bringin’ about for my enslaved bredderin’. De ladies especially is most anxious to make your acquaintance. He, he, he! de ladies is most anxious. An’, my dear son, whatever you do, don’t go on playin’ any longer dat loogoobrious melancholy fiddle-toon. If you _must_ play someting, play us someting lively—_Pretty little yaller Gal_, or someting of dat sort!’ Dr Whitaker almost flung down his beloved violin in his shame and disgrace at this untimely interruption. ‘Father,’ he said, as kindly as he was able, ‘I am not well to-night—I am indisposed—I am suffering somewhat—you must excuse me, please; I’m afraid I shan’t be able to meet your friends at dinner this evening.’ And taking down his soft hat from the peg in the piazza, he crushed it despairingly upon his aching head, and stalked out, alone and sick at heart, into the dusty, dreary, cactus-bordered lanes of that transformed and desolate Trinidad. (_To be continued._) FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROVERBS. The object of the writer of this paper has been to collect and compare a few of the most familiar English and French proverbs or sayings; and to bring together a few of those sayings which exist as such in both languages, expressing the same idea, or nearly so, in each. To begin with a few similes.