"I would rather you didn't," said Lillie, her face still white. "I have found so much inspiration in your books that I could not bear to be daily reminded I ought not to have found it." Poor president! The lessons of experience were hard! The Club taught her much she were happier without. That day Lord Silverdale appropriately intoned (with banjo obligato) a patter-song which he pretended to have written at the Academy, whence he had just come with the conventional splitting headache. AFTER THE ACADEMY--A JINGLE. (NOT BY ALFRED JINGLE.) Brain a-whirling, pavement twirling, Cranium aching, almost baking, Mind a muddle, puddle, fuddle. Million pictures, million mixtures, Small and great 'uns, Brown's and Leighton's, Sky and wall 'uns, short and tall 'uns, Pseudo classic for, alas! _Sic Transit gloria sub Victoriâ_), Landscape, figure, white or nigger, Steely etchings, inky sketchings, Genre, portrait (not one caught trait), Eke historic (kings plethoric), Realistic, prize-fight-fistic, Entozoic, nude, heroic, Coarse, poetic, homiletic, Still-life (flowers, tropic bowers), Pure domestic, making breast tick With emotion; endless ocean, Glaze or scrumble, craze and jumble, Varnish mastic, sculpture plastic, Canvas, paper (oh, for taper!) Oil and water, (oh, for slaughter!) Children, cattle, 'busses, battle, Seamen, satyrs, lions, waiters, Nymphs and peasants, peers and pheasants, Dogs and flunkeys, gods and monkeys Half-dressed ladies, views of Hades, Phillis tripping, seas and shipping, Hearth and meadow, brooks and bread-dough, Doves and dreamers, stars and steamers, Saucepans, blossoms, rags, opossums, Tramway, cloudland, wild and ploughed land, Gents and mountains, clocks and fountains, Pan and pansy--these of fancy Have possession in procession Never-ending, ever blending, All a-flitter and a-glitter, Ever prancing, ever dancing, Ever whirling, ever curling, Ever swirling, ever twirling, Ever bobbing, ever throbbing. Ho, some brandy--is it handy? Air seems tainting, I am fainting. Hang all--no, _don't_ hang all--painting! CHAPTER XVIII. THE BEAUTIFUL GHOUL. Wee Winnie called at the Club, while the President was still under the cloud of depression, and Lillie had to force herself to look cheerful, lest Miss Nimrod should mistake the melancholy, engendered by so many revelations of the seamy side of life, for loss of faith in the Club or its prospects. Avid of experience as was the introspective little girl, she felt almost fated for the present.