Delighted again to see ELLA RUSSELL as _Susanna_. To think that only the other evening she was the graceful and stately _Queen Marguerite_ in _Les Huguenots_, and now she is a _soubrette très piquante_. There are other pages in Madame SCALCHI'S history--the page in _the Huguenots_, for example, and his twin brother in _Lucrezia Borgia_--which like me more than her _Cherubino_. Vocally DAN DRADY the Dramatic is all right; but he is too severe for _Figaro_ the barber. Good house considering it is Ascot week, and on this night when such sad rumours are in the air, everyone sincerely delighted at seeing the Marchioness of LORNE in the Royal Box. _Thursday._--_Cup Day_, Ascot. _Roméo et Juliette._ Most appropriate: _Juliette_ takes the Cup. _Friday, Don Giovanni_; and _Saturday, Lucia_. This deponent sings, "Not there, not there, my child!" "Eye hath not seen,"--I mean, "_I_ have not seen" these two on these two particular occasions; but I believe that, in consequence of my absence, the Opera went on as usual, and DRURIOLANUS did not have to come before the Curtain and make an apology. * * * * * IN THE KNOW. (_By Mr. Punch's Own Prophet._) THE crass and pernicious dulness of some people exceeds belief. There exists at the office of this paper a _person_--he is absolutely unworthy of any other designation--who presumed last week to abstain from inserting in these columns the article to which the sporting millions of his fellow countrymen were looking for information with reference to the Ascot doings. I have no doubt whatever that _he himself used the hints_ which that article contained, for I have since seen him in a brand-new hat and a gold watch-chain, the result of his ill-gotten gains. For my own sake I am forced to explain this sinister business, lest the preposterous suet-headed Mr. J. should triumph, and my readers should suppose for a moment that I would willingly disappoint them. I have kept a copy of what I wrote, and I here transcribe some of it in self-defence. "With regard to the Royal Hunt Cup," I observed, "only a bat-eyed bargee, with the brains of a molluscous monkey, could fail to see the merits of _Morion_. _Morion_, it is well known, is an open helmet, but it doesn't follow from that that the Hunt Cup is an open event. Far from it. Visor, or no visor, those who elect to stand on _Morion_, need anticipate no trouble from anything else, for _Morion_ is as certain to win the race as Mr. J. is to make a green-gooseberry fool of himself before another week is out." There was accuracy. No silly beating about the bush, but a straightforward piece of information, which not even the great band of boozy Bedlamites and buffoons who dance attendance on Mr. J. could have mistaken. But, as I said, no blame attaches to me in the matter.