"I shall do nothing of the sort," replied my Wife, calmly. "I locked you in, and I shan't let you out." "What, Madam," I exclaimed; "do you defy my authority?" "Certainly!" was the immediate response, "You may say or think what you like, but you don't leave this house to-day as sure as I am your lawfully wedded Wife." And as a matter of fact I didn't! (_Signed._) A. BRIEFLESS, JUNIOR. _Pump-handle Court._ * * * * * OPERATIC NOTES. [Illustration] _Monday_.--To see MADAME ALBANI as _Violetta_ the consumptive heroine of "_La Traviata_." Charmingly sung and admirably, nay, most touchingly, acted. MAUREL excellent as _Germont Senior_, and MONTARIOL quite the weak-minded masher _Alfredo_. What a different turn the story might have taken had it occurred to _Violetta_ to have a flirtation with the handsome middle-aged _père noble_! At one time it almost seemed as if there had been some change in motive of the Opera since I last saw it, and that the above original idea was about to be carried out. But no; in another second _Germont-Maurel_ as "Old Maurelity" (by kind permission of TOBY, M.P.) had pulled himself together, and _Albani-Violetta_ was in the depths of remorseful sorrow. In that gay and festive supper scene, where a physician, unostentatiously styled _Il Dottore_ (he would probably be _Ill_ Dottore the morning after) is present to look after the health of the guests, and perhaps to "propose" it, I noticed with pleasure that, on the tables, DRURIOLANUS ALDERMANICUS, mindful of civic feasts, had placed bottles of real champagne, or at least real champagne-bottles. This interested the audience muchly, and numerous were the glasses turned in the direction of the bottles--of course 'tis opera-glasses I mean, yer honour,--in order to ascertain what particular wanity was _La Traviata's_ favourite; but the bottles were so placed that only one unimportant word on the label was visible. Was it Pommery '80 _très sec_?--Or what was it? Impossible to see: it was not mentioned in the dialogue, so "Mumm" might have been the word. But at all events, if the wine is one which requires advertisement, the guests should be told to be very careful to leave the bottles in the same position as in the old prefatial stage-directions "the reader of the play" is supposed to be; i.e., "_on the stage, facing the audience_." _Wednesday._--_Rigoletto_. M. MAUREL as the Jester; acting good, voice too loud. ALBANI, as _Gilda_, overwhelmed with encores. M. MONTARIOL's _Il Duca_ is _Alfredo_ over again, only confirmed in a vicious career. To obtain an encore for the great but now hackneyed song, "_La Donna e mobile_," a wonderful rendering is absolutely essential, and somehow something seems wanting to the success of _Rigoletto_ when this song goes for nothing and is passed without a rapturous "_bis, bis!_" which makes a Manager rub his hands and smilingly say to himself, "Good bis-ness."