_Mrs. F._ Where? Why, at the BLEWITTS, to be sure! You see, after you got out, we had to keep moving on, and by-and-by the fog got better, and we could see where we were going to,--and the BLEWITTS had put off dinner half an hour, so I was not so _very_ late. Such a _nice_ dinner! Everybody turned up except _you_, MARMADUKE--but I _told_ them how it was. Oh, and old Lady HOREHOUND was there, and said a man had actually got into her brougham, and tried to wrench off one of her bracelets!--only she spoke to him so severely that he was struck with remorse, or something, and got out again! And it was by the Park, _close_ to where you left me. Just fancy, MARMADUKE, he might have got into the carriage with _me_, instead! _Mr. F._ (_gloomily_). Yes, he _might_--only, he--er--_didn't_, you know! * * * * * [Illustration: BITING SARCASM. _Gentleman with the Broom_ (_who has inadvertently splashed the Artist's favourite Shipwreck_). "OW YUS! I SUPPOSE YER THINK YE'RE THE PRESIDENT O' THE ROY'L ACADERMY! A SETTIN THERE IN THE LAP ER LUXURY!!"] * * * * * [Illustration: "A GOOD LITTLE 'UN IS BETTER THAN A BAD BIG 'UN."--(_P.R. Maxim._) A BIT OF MODERN BOXIANA.] "110-Ton Guns do not count for any practical purpose.... These monsters are the laughing-stock of everyone who takes the smallest interest in the subject. They are quite indefensible, and not worth making, even if they were unobjectionable, for the simple reason that everything we require can be done by smaller weapons.... It is believed that more of these useless monsters are to be made by way of reserve. It is an insane policy, designed simply to save somebody's _amour propre_, and we still hope to hear from Lord GEORGE HAMILTON that it has been abandoned."--"_The Times" on the Naval Estimates_. "That a good little 'un is better than a bad big 'un," is an old and accepted maxim amongst the really knowing ones of the P.R. It is one, however, that now, as of yore, swell backers, self-conceited amateurs, and other pugilistic jugginses ore apt to ignore or forget. Where, we wonder, would the slab-sided "Sprawleybridge Babe" or the shambling "Baldnob the Titan" have been in front of the small but active and accomplished "Duodecimo Dumps"? Why, where the vaunted "Benicia Boy" would have been after fifty rounds with TOM SAYERS--_with_ his "Auctioneer" in full play. In fact, when a good little 'un meets a bad big 'un, it is very soon a case--with the latter--of "bellows to mend," or "there he goes; with his eye out!" These remarks have been suggested by recent revelations concerning that much over-rated pet of the mugs--the "Woolwich Whopper," _alias_ the "Elswick Folly," _alias_ HAMILTON's "Novice."