another solitary umbrella, which he casts wildly into space. For one moment the captain, the passengers, the people on the quay, gaze breathless as it whirls through the air. It falls just short of the landing-stage, and sinks into the grey waters of that chilly lake, never more to be recovered, in any sense of the word. In those immeasurable depths its neat silk covering will decay, its slender frame will fall to pieces. It has gone for ever. Beneath this grey Italian sky some Italian gamp must keep off these Italian showers. Then the captain, the passengers, and the people smile and laugh. I, who write this, am the only one on whose face there is not a grin, for that umbrella was mine. A FIRST IMPRESSIONIST. * * * * * TO A PRETTY UNKNOWN. (_By a Constant Admirer._) [Illustration] Your pretty face I saw two years ago, You looked divine--if I'm not wrong, in lace. I noticed you, and thus I got to know Your pretty face. To-day I travelled to a distant place. We stopped at Bath. I read my _Punch_, when lo! You came into my carriage and Your Grace Rode with me for a dozen miles or so. Tell me, should we in this Fate's finger trace? I care not since you had the heart to show Your pretty face. * * * * * TEDDIE THE TILER. [Illustration] 'Tis November makes the (Lord) Mayor to go. As the ninth approaches, the year's tenant of the Mansion House packs up and says farewell to all his greatness. On the principle that attributes happiness to a country that has no annals, the outgoing LORD MAYOR is to be congratulated on his year of office. It is probable that out of aldermanic circles not one man of a hundred in the street could straight off say what is his Lordship's name. _Mr. Punch_, who knows most things, only ventures to believe that the good alderman is known in the family circle as Sir EDWARD TYLER. And a very good name, too. In the occult ceremonies pertaining to freemasonry it is understood there is an official known as the Tiler, whose duty is to guard the door, strictly excluding all but those whose right of entrance is peremptory. Our Sir EDWARD has indeed been the Tiler of the traditionally hospitable Mansion House. * * * * * BROKEN CHINA. [Illustration]