"But last time we met you were just divorcing the Count and I wasn't quite sure of your relations with your new husband." Tatiana kissed the tips of her fingers. "He's lovely!" she cried enthusiastically. "A real Cossack officer. Why, there he is! Dmitre, this is Monsieur Anatole, our family lawyer. He'll sell the house for us, and he's promised me some Savon Ideal from Paris. You'll go to Paris, won't you?" she said, putting a very seductive face close to mine. I parried. "It's difficult for Russians----" "Oh, that's all right; you can become a Czecho-Slovak. I can give you a letter; you need only stay there half-an-hour when you're passing through." I felt my cherished Russian nationality slipping away and my only safety seemed to lie in an instant departure. I caught her hand and kissed her polished finger-tips. She bent forward and kissed my forehead. "Good journey," she said. "A happy time at home," I answered, and, saluting her husband, I hurried to the door. "I'm glad there's a little bit of Russian left in you," she called after me. "And by the way you might bring two boxes of the soap; it doesn't last long." * * * * * ONE SPORTSMAN TO ANOTHER. You that I fancied my prey (Mine was the blunder)-- Three pounds I'd back you to weigh, Not an ounce under-- Are you, like prices to-day, Rising, I wonder? Triton were you among trout, Jaw tough as leather; I put it over your snout Light as a feather-- Splash! and the line whizzing out Linked us together; Till, ere your fate I could seal, Me you eluded; Back came the line to the reel (Cast not included); Oft 'twixt the weed and the creel Fish slip--as you did. So, since all winter, alack! I have bemoaned you, Give me a chance to get back Some of my own due Interest earn'd on the black Gnat that I loaned you. Then we'll be for it, we two (Luck to the winner!); Meanwhile be careful what you Take for your dinner; Fancy confections eschew-- Blue, dun or spinner. Scorning (you'll grant me the boon?) Other folk's gay fly, Under the willow till June Sheltered and safe lie; I shall be after you soon, I and my May-fly. * * * * * "I should be very glad to have a movement started to put an end to the extravagant, unseemly and disedifying length to which ladies in this country have gone in adopting fashions of dress."--_Irish Paper._ Hitherto it had been supposed that the objection to the modern modes was their excessive brevity. * * * * * "Coopers Wanted, dry or tight; only Society men need apply."--_Advt. in Daily Paper._ Inebriation is no longer popular among Society men. * * * * * [Illustration: MANNERS AND MODES. QUEERING HIS PITCH. WHAT OUR ARTIST POSER HAS TO PUT UP WITH.] * * * * *