Somerset House, like most of the public offices, closes at four o’clock, so it is advisable to go not after half-past three at the latest. If Aunt Anne can put off her visit till next week, I shall be happy to accompany her if she desires it. This week all my time is fully occupied with an unusually large sessions, which means that your affectionate cousin will have the chance of scooping in a guinea or two by the prosecution of some unfortunate prisoner. This is what we call getting “soup.” A curious name, is it not? I do not know the origin of the term, which is certainly a suggestive one. A good many of us never get beyond the “soup,” I am afraid, much as we should like to assist at the carving up of the joints. After which poetical digression, let us return to our muttons. It is very annoying to lose a business appointment on account of a train being late. Gerald has my sympathy, but I can offer him no consolation, it being a generally established rule that damages cannot be obtained for the loss of a business engagement, nor can damages be obtained for the annoyance experienced by the traveller. You see the railway companies say that “every attention will be paid to ensure punctuality,” and to recover damages you would have to prove that the lateness of the train was due to their neglect to pay the “every attention” promised, a difficult thing to do. Supposing the weather was foggy, or there had been a break-down on the line, or some other reason for the train being late, the company would declare that their failure to keep to the time advertised on their time-tables was unavoidable, and due to causes beyond their control. There have been one or two cases where travellers have recovered damages from railway companies on account of the lateness of a train, but in all these cases there were special circumstances which rendered the companies liable; but Gerald’s case was not an exceptional one; in fact, if he were a suburban season ticket holder, he would find the lateness of trains arriving in the morning a very common occurrence. If a train is advertised to stop at a certain station, and you get carried beyond your destination, you would probably be successful in obtaining damages for personal inconvenience, supposing you were obliged to walk back, and you would certainly be entitled to drive back and charge the expense of carriage hire to the company; or, supposing that no conveyance was procurable and it was too far or too wet or too late for you to return on foot, you would be justified in going to a hotel and making the company reimburse you for the expenses of the night. It would have to be an exceptional case which would justify you in the ordering of a special train, a course of action not recommended by Your affectionate cousin, BOB BRIEFLESS. GIRLS AS I HAVE KNOWN THEM. BY ELSA D’ESTERRE-KEELING, Author of “Old Maids and Young.” PART VIII. THE BEAUTIFUL GIRL.