As Mrs. Tarbell was coming out of the court-room--a juryman had in the mean time told her that he hoped she had got a good round sum by her compromise: "You would have had, say, eighteen hundred from us," he said,--as Mrs. Tarbell was going down-stairs, having just told Mrs. Pegley that she--Mrs. Tarbell--did not think it necessary to communicate all her private affairs to her friends, there was Celandine waiting for her in the passage. "Mrs. Tarbell," said Celandine hesitatingly, her eyes still red,--"Mrs. Tarbell--" "Well?" said Mrs. Tarbell. "About my studying law, please, ma'am. I just wanted to say that--that--" Unpropitious moment. The storm gathered on Mrs. Tarbell's brow. "I just wanted to tell you that I shall have to give it up, ma'am," said Celandine hurriedly. "I'm going to marry Mr. Mecutchen." "I wish you joy," Mrs. Tarbell said, and went on down-stairs. THOMAS WHARTON. QUEEN ANNE OR FREE CLASSIC ARCHITECTURE. "If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces." _Merchant of Venice_, Act i., Scene ii. Of all the recognized styles of domestic architecture the position of modern Queen Anne, or so-called Free Classic, is perhaps the most difficult to determine. The nomenclature will assist us but little in investigating its art-history and constructive laws,--the term Queen Anne being as much too narrow as Free Classic is too broad. If we ask the professors of architecture and the more learned practitioners of the art for information on the subject, we shall get vague and unsatisfactory replies. Many of the younger and more enthusiastic architects, and the devotees of spinning-wheels, blue India teapots, and green crown glass will, on the contrary, unhesitatingly tell us that Queen Anne, is "high art;" forgetting that art had reached its lowest ebb in England when William and Mary ascended the throne left vacant by the Stuarts. With such diversity of sentiment and reasoning, how shall we elucidate the truth? When did Queen Anne architecture originate, who were its great masters, under what influence did it spring up, what causes led to its decline, and to what source may we trace its sudden and aggressive renaissance? To the student who looks beneath the surface of fashionable art-culture the Queen Anne and Georgian periods seem almost like a mirage, where he sees dimly reflected vistas of city streets lined with tall houses built of red brick, with tiled roofs, long and narrow sash-windows painted white, and outside shutters painted green. If he goes to the academies for information, he will be told that early Queen Anne was a feeble application of Palladian rules designed for palatial works in marble to smaller edifices built of brick, and that late Queen Anne is simply a craze that must run its course and then sink into obscurity, as did its prototype.