"You are so lovely", says the wretch, "Your picture will be quite entrancing!" And to the lady in the sketch I overheard him thus romancing. * * * * * [Illustration: THE RULING PASSION _Sir Talbot Howard Vere de Vere._ "Ah! Good morning, Mrs. Jones! Dreadful accident just occurred. Poor young lady riding along the King's Road--horse took fright--reared, and fell back upon her--dreadfully injured, I'm sorry to say!" _Mrs. Woodbee Swellington Jones._ "_Quite_ too shocking, dear Sir Talbot! Was she--er--a person of position?" _Sir Talbot Howard Vere de Vere._ "POSITION, by George!! Dooced uncomfortable position, too, I should say!"] * * * * * [Illustration: FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD _Bertie._ "Gertie, do just go back to the beach and fetch me a baby (you'll find a lot about), and I'll show you all the different ways of saving it from drowning!"] * * * * * ANNALS OF A WATERING-PLACE THAT HAS "SEEN ITS DAY" [Illustration: TYNEMOUTH] The weather which, in Mr. Dunstable's varied experience of five-and-twenty years, he assures me, has never been so bad, having at length afforded some indications of "breaking", I make the acquaintance, through Mrs. Cobbler, of Mr. Wisterwhistle, proprietor of the one bath-chair available for the invalid of Torsington-on-Sea, who, like myself, stands in need of the salubrious air of that health-giving resort, but who is ordered by his medical adviser to secure it with the least possible expenditure of physical strength.