Yes, quite so. It's a very good excuse! Whenever I do not turn up when I am expected, my children say, "Pa's about pictures." It's just the same as a doctor, when he forgets to keep an appointment, says, "he has unexpectedly been called out." Yah! _I'd_ call some of 'em out if I had the chance. I took French leave the other day, and went to the French Gallery, expecting to see sketches in French chalk, or studies in French grey. Nothing of the kind! Mr. WALLIS will have his little joke. The main part of the exhibition is essentially English, and so I found my Parisian accent was entirely thrown away. If it had only been Scotch, I could have said something about the "Scots wha hae wi' WALLIS," but I didn't have even that chance. Too bad, though, the show is a good one. "English, you know, quite English." Lots of good landscapes by LEADER, bright, fresh, breezy. Young painters should "follow their Leader," and they can't go very far wrong. I would write a leader on the subject, and introduce something about the land-scape-goat, only I know it would be cut out. Being very busy, sent Young Par to see Miss CHARLOTTE ROBINSON's Exhibition of Screens. He behaved badly. Instead of looking at matters in a serious light, he seemed to look upon the whole affair as a "screening farce," and began to sing-- Here screens of all kinds you may see, Designed most ar-tist-_tic_-a-lee, In exquisite va-ri-e-tee, By clever CHARLOTTE ROBINSON! They'll screen you from the bitter breeze, They'll screen you when you take your teas, They'll screen you when you flirt with shes-- Delightful CHARLOTTE ROBINSON! He then folded his arms, and began to sing, "with my riddle-ol, de riddle-ol, de ri, de O," danced a hornpipe all over the place, broke several valuable pieces of furniture, and was removed in charge of the police. And this is the boy that was to be a comfort to me in my old age! Yours parabolically, OLD PAR. * * * * * Novel praise from the _D.T._ for the Lord Mayor's Show, during a pause for lunch:--"It is so quaint, so bright, so thoroughly un-English." The Lord Mayor's Show "So Un-English, you know"! Then, indeed have we arrived at the end of the ancient _al-fresco_ spectacle. * * * * * IN A HOLE. (_BRIEF IMPERIAL TRAGI-COMEDY, IN TWO ACTS, IN ACTIVE REHEARSAL._) ["Well, if it comes to fighting, we should be just in a hole."--_A Linesman's Opinion of the New Rifle, from Conversation in Daily Paper._] ACT I. SCENE--_A Public Place in Time of Peace._ _Mrs. Britannia_ (_receiving a highly finished and improved newly constructed scientific weapon from cautious and circumspect Head of Department_). And so this is the new Magazine Rifle? _Head of Department_ (_in a tone of quiet and self-satisfied triumph_). It is, Madam. _Mrs. Britannia_. And I may take your word for it, that it is a weapon I can with confidence place in the hands of my soldiers.