[_Last Act is played, and_ Paul Astier _is shot dead_. _Mrs. Brown_ (_much affected_). Oh! what did they do _that_ for? _Brown._ Don't you see--the reward of life. Hence the title. (_Subsequently in the cab._) Wasn't it good? Didn't you enjoy yourself? _Mrs. Brown._ Very much indeed, but I _do_ wish you had got a book! (_To herself._) Let me see--green velvet over white satin. (_Aloud._) It will take about eighteen yards! _Brown_ (_waking up_). Eighteen yards of what? _Mrs. Brown._ Oh, nothing! I was only thinking. [_Scene closes in upon a mental vision of the dress-maker from opposite points of view._ * * * * * "ALLOWED TO STARVE."--To save time, contributions to the Balaclava Fund should be forwarded direct to the Editor of _The St. James's Gazette_. * * * * * THE OPERA-GOER'S DIARY. [Illustration: _Poor little Zélie (beseechingly)._ O Mr. Randegger, _do_ let me have my bouquets!] _Monday._--_Don Giovanni._ RAVELLI the Reliable an excellent _Don Ottavio_, vocally; considered dramatically, he does as much as can be expected of a man of his inches. _Zerlina_ and _Masetto_ so pleased with his singing that they stop on the stage all through the _tessoro_ song, for which he takes a hearty _encore_, whereupon _Zerlina_ and _Mazetto_ run off quickly. Having had enough of it, however, they do not return for the _encore_. Rather rude this. DAN DRADY too sinister for gay _Don Giovanni_; and there is a villanous determination about his gallantry which would have frightened away the coquettish _Zerlina_, and have warned the more mature ladies of the world, _Donna Anna_ and _Donna Elvira_, in time to prevent them from falling victims to his wiles. Otherwise a highly satisfactory _Don_. Signor PLUNKETTO GREENO as the unfortunate _Commendatore_, who is first killed, and then executed in stone, as a statue to his own memory, was heard and seen to the best advantage. ZÉLIE DE LUSSAN, too Carmenish as flighty little _Zerlina_, but evidently a match for the sardonic Don DAN DRADY. Madame TAVARY has done well to quit the Hofoperahaus, Munich, and come to Covengardenhaus as _Donna Anna_,--a trying part that not _Anna_-body can play and sing as well as Madame TAVARY. This lady and LILIAN NORDICA (pretty name LILIAN) as _Donna Elvira_ render the characters so charmingly, that they cease to be the funereal bores I have generally considered them. _Ottavio_, _Anna_, and _Elvira_, the trio with a grievance, are, usually, about as cheerful as the three Anabaptists in _Le Prophète. Mais on a changé tout cela_. PALLADINO, as the dancing guest--she is always small and early in every Opera now--delights everyone, and so does Conductor RANDEGGER, who is determined that poor little ZÉLIE DE LUSSAN shall not receive the big bouquets which a mysterious man has brought to the orchestra; then one of the instrumentalists handed them to the leader, who, in order