Here indeed the phantom of Hope seems to gleam forth rainbow-like even amidst the foul mists of the Maelstroem! That beautiful agonised figure seems yet but as it were at the edge of the whirl. Into its profound and pestilential depths, indeed, she _can see_. And she shudders at the sight, as must all who are interested in her fate. But the Stroem will not whirl for ever, the hour of slack cannot be far off, and when the slope of the sides of the vast funnel become momentarily less and less steep, when the gyrations of the whirl grow gradually less and less violent, when the froth and the fume disappear, and the bottom of the gulf seems slowly to uprise; when the sky clears, and the winds go down, and the full moon rises radiantly o'er the swaying but no longer tormented floods, shall she, that beautiful, bound creature be found floating upon the quieting waves, sorely buffeted, may be much scarred, bearing in her beauty ineffaceable traces of the hideous ordeal she has undergone, but living, and _Safe_? * * * * * So may it be! * * * * * [Illustration: FASHIONABLE. "HOW DO YOU LIKE ME IN THIS, VERA? TELL ME THE TRUTH." "WELL, DEAR, IT LOOKS AS IF YOUR PET POODLE HAD DIED, AND YOU'D HAD HIM MADE UP AS A CLOAK!"] * * * * * CHARLEY'S OLD 'AUNT AT THE ROYALTY. _Charley's Aunt_, by Mr. BRANDON THOMAS, is distinctly related to _The Private Secretary_; and Mr. PENLEY, as _Lord Babberley_, is second cousin to the _Rev. Mr. Spalding_, who, as the Private Secretary, obtained so distinguished a position in the theatrical world not so many years ago. As a play, _The Private Secretary_ had a strange history, seeing that it began as a failure, had an Act cut out of it, and, surviving this severe operation, grew into an enormous success, then went "so strong" as to be able to keep on running in London, the Provinces, our Colonies, and America, for some years. _Charley's Aunt_, however, has experienced no such downs and ups, being born to the rouge-pot as heiress of the great success which _The Private Secretary_ had only gradually, though surely, achieved. Yet 'tis a matter for question whether the latter was not the better piece, dramatically, of the two, having, besides its own comic situations, two irresistibly diverting characters, represented by little PENLEY and mountainous HILL, both playing into one another's hands.