_To those about to travel_ viâ _Dover and Calais_.--Ask when _The Empress_ makes the journey. Something like a boat, and the day our party went by her she did the crossing in the hour, and I won't positively swear it wasn't a minute or so under that time. There's a crossing-sweeper for you! The Empress of the Sea! Mind you it was a fine day, and what I should say would be considered a calm sea, though there were several sufferers. If not in a hurry--and who can hurry in such weather?--the easiest travelling is by the 11 A.M. from Victoria; admirable _Empress_ for the crossing; and a good twenty-five minutes or more for one of the best buffet-luncheons in France. Stay the night in Paris, and off to your Royat, your Aix, or wherever it may be, as early as possible. _At the Paris-Lyon Station, en route for Royat._--Owing to the gentle influence of Colonel WATERS, attached to the L. C. & D. corps in Paris, and to the indefatigable exertions of his lieutenant in uniform, GUSTAV HERLAN, the P. L. & M. Company have consented to put a _lit-salon_ carriage on to their day-train as quite an exceptional concession to an invalid, who might be supposed to have thus addressed them:-- Pity the sorrows of a gouty man, Whose trembling limbs have brought him to your door, Who asks you to oblige him with--you can-- A simple _lit-salon_ and nothing more. The perfect comfort of this arrangement for a long journey is worth the price including the _supplément_, which I am paying when a cheery voice cries, "Hallo! old chap," and I recognise PULLER, whom I haven't seen for some time. I return his greeting heartily. "You've got a _coupé reservé_?" he exclaims gleefully, and literally skipping for joy. I never saw a man in such spirits. He is not absolutely young, nearer forty than thirty for example, looking so wonderfully fresh, that turn-down collars and a jacket would suit him perfectly. He is as clean-shaved as a Benedictine Monk or a Low Comedian. He says of himself--he is the waggish companion to whom I alluded in my previous notes--"I am well preserved in high spirits." He insists on paying the extra seat and _supplément_. Cousin JANE (again going to Royat for the Cæsar Baths) says she shall be delighted, and so PULLER is to come with us. Certainly am delighted to see PULLER. Will he have his things brought here? He will, "_à l'instant!_"--he pronounces it "_ar long stong_," and roars with laughter as if he had delivered himself of the rarest witticism. Then he skips off down the platform, waving an umbrella in one hand and a stick in the other. Suddenly PULLER'S social characteristics all flash across me. I haven't seen him for years, and had forgotten them. I recollect _now_, he is what they call "an inveterate punster," and loves when abroad (though an accomplished linguist) to speak the language of the country in which he may be temporarily sojourning with a strong English accent; it is also a part