_Publisher._ And so I thought that, perhaps, with your kind assistance, we might work off some of the blocks that have been left on our hands under the unfortunate circumstances I have just related. _Author._ Certainly. Quite easy. You want to get a Christmas Number out of them. All right--give me the subjects, and I will just jot down how they shall be worked in. We will commence--hero and heroine--say, for the moment, _Edwin_ and _Angelina_. _Pub._ (_looking at pictures_). I fancy this is intended for somewhere in the neighbourhood of the North Pole. Sailors surrounded by white bears on an iceberg. _Auth._ Very good. _Edwin's_ father was an Arctic explorer. Write under sketch, "The old man had many a startling adventure in the silent land of eternal snow." Go on. _Pub._ Here is, seemingly, a quarrel to the death, in the time of CHARLES THE SECOND. Ball-room, with Cavaliers and their Ladies. Central group, a fight with swords. Can we do anything with it? _Auth._ Why, certainly. _Edwin_ excites the jealousy of _Angelina's_ cousin _Reginald_. The latter calls out the former at a fancy-dress dance. Label it--"_Captain de Courcy_ was too impatient to wait until the ball was over, but challenged his rival as the company were on the eve of going down to supper." Drive on! _Pub._ This seems rather a puzzle,--a ship sinking in mid-ocean. _Auth._ The very thing. _Edwin_ having lost all his money on the Stock Exchange, goes to Australia for more gold. Label--"The storm was terrific, and the _Belgravia_ had much difficulty in weathering this gale of almost unprecedented violence". Next, please! _Pub._ Why here are some sketches of Venice, St. Petersburg, China, and North Wales. _Auth._ I can take them _en bloc_. _Edwin_ and _Angelina_, before they return home, go upon a honeymoon. Work them all in. Anything else? _Pub._ A man being shot by a company of French soldiers. Is that of any use? _Auth._ First-rate fate for the wicked _Reginald_. Goes to France during the Franco-German War as a Special Correspondent, and is shot as a Prussian spy. Couldn't be better. Anything else? _Pub._ A village crowd looking at a representation of "Punch and Judy." _Auth._ Obviously a recollection of _Edwin's_ schooldays. Label it--"Sometimes he would join the crowd, watching an exhibition of perambulating puppets." Anything else? _Pub._ A man being thrown from his horse into a brook. _Auth._ All right! _Angelina_ first falls in love with _Edwin_ when nursing him after an accident in the hunting-field. Label it--"His horse swerved, and _Edwin_ was thrown with great violence into the water." Anything else? _Pub._ A man with a dark lantern looking, I think, at a mile-stone. _Auth._ _Reginald_, before his death in France, tries to enter burglariously the dwelling-house of his hated rival. Label--"The misguided wretch paused for a moment while he examined one of the mile-stones." Anything further?