SAD STORY.--A painter, who had on several occasions aspired to a place in the Chantrey Collection, and invariably been refused, on being encouraged to launch a fresh venture, and spread his canvas, which would be soon filled, for a sale, replied dejectedly, "Chantrey be blowed; I _shan't try_ any more!" Poor fellow! He must indeed have been bad. He has not been heard of since. The Serpentine has been dragged. * * * * * THE HANSOM CAB STRIKE!--Remarkable Conversion!! Not yet concluded! Last week another lot of Hansoms became Growlers. * * * * * REPARTEE TO A SPOUSE. Both parties in the recent extraordinary abduction case, where a Mrs. JONES was carried off down a rope-ladder at midnight by her own husband, Mr. JONES, have published statements defending their own line of conduct. The following is Mrs. JONES'S version:-- "As public opinion appears to have erroneously taken my--so-called--husband's side, as far as I can gather from my having been twice chased through the streets by an infuriated mob, and four separate attempts having been made to blow up my house with nitro-glycerine, I feel compelled to explain--with much reluctance--why it was that I declined to live with Mr. JONES. "To begin with, it was only under _the most awful threats_ that Mr. JONES prevailed on me to become his wife. His words--I remember them well--were, 'My darling, you know how tenderly I adore you; if you don't marry me _at once_ I'll break every bone in your body!' He then snatched my bonnet, a _new one_, from my head, and so acted on my _nerves_ that I went off to the Registry Office and was married. That he was actuated by merely mercenary motives is proved by the fact that the gratuity (of half-a-crown), which he presented to the Registry Clerk, he actually _borrowed from me!_ I knew him already to be unprincipled; but never until that moment had it flashed upon me that he was a _fortune-hunter!_ However, as he had the drawing-room poker with him--he kept it concealed up his back during the ceremony at the Registry Office--I did not at that time say anything, but handed him the coin. I do not know if I should have left him at once, had he not aggravated the baseness of his conduct by using the vulgar expression, 'Fork it out quick!' But I regret to say that his origin is painfully _low_. Whereas, anybody who consults _my_ relatives will hear from them that they belong to the very highest County Families. Indeed, he would hear it all day long if he lived with them, as I do! "On the day of the abduction, I was treated _barbarously!_ Even the cab in which I was taken off was, so the coachman informed me, 'put down to my account.' Oh, had I but guessed the truth about Mr. JONES when I went to the Altar--I mean the Registry Office! Supper consisted of _cold mutton and pickles_ (!) which latter he upset, and I had a dress _ruined_."