And Lord Alfred laughed, and replied that Harry said so because he was jealous of the superior cut of Monsieur Guillemard’s garments. Alice agreed perfectly with her husband, which, Kate remarked, was the most original feature of the whole affair--an observation intended for a mild and playful jest, but at which Alice blushed, and Harry suddenly became engrossed by a spirited sketch, in very water-colours, of Ophelia as she appeared when drowning, which, according to the talented representation of Miss Appela Brown, H.S.A.A., was remarkably jolly, and slightly inebriated--next to which hung a portrait of Miss Brown herself, seated at her easel, her pre-Raphaelite countenance beaming with mingled talent and astonishment on the picture growing beneath her gifted brush--a compound expression, at which, as the subject was some demi-god, or other mythical celebrity, in heroic muscular proportions strongly developed, and nothing else, we can scarcely feel surprise. Then the whole party devoted their serious attention to the performances of the amalgamated ones, and were rewarded by beholding many fearful and wonderful things. There were “young gentlemen taken from life,” and transported by amalgamated magic into the regions of romance--an _un_likeness of Snook’s ruddy face being affixed to Hamlet’s velvet body, or Mary Ann Jones’s very _retroussé_ profile heading Joan of Arc’s steel bodice, and a select squadron of twelve French soldiers in green hunting-coats and fancy hats and feathers, prepared to “_mourir pour la patrie_” to any extent which the said Mary Ann might require of them. Then there were landscapes with gamboge foregrounds, pasturing comical cows of shapes and colours unknown to zoology; and middle distances, gloomy with indigo trees, and cast-iron rivulets purling rigidly over wild rocks, suggested by bald places, showing the naked paper through a severe application of sepia and neutral tint. Ferocious battles were there also, designed by gentle girls, who had never witnessed so much as a street row, wherein gallant Henri Quatre-like parties, with slim waists, feminine complexions, and white waving plumes, slaughtered strong men in funny dresses, and pranced over their dead bodies with the most heroic magnanimity and indifference. Then there was Mount Vesuvius during an eruption, which, to judge by the colouring, must have been the eruption attendant on scarlet fever; and Mont Blanc well iced, showing the _mer de glace_ (the most difficult mare to mount on record, as “we know who” would say), and the last batch of proselytes from the Egyptian Hall sliding serenely down on their haunches, as wolves are _reported_ to do, only the proselytes appear to have got the “advantage” of the wolves, by reason of their coat-tails. Scripture pieces, too, had some of these rash amateurs perpetrated, wherein “daughters of Babylon” appeared like the _corps de ballet_, and kings, prophets, and