‘_Madame_--_Ayant appris par ce Monsieur, que vous vous portiez bien, ainsi que Monsieur, ayant su aussi que vous parliez de moi dans votre lettre cette nouvelle m’a fait bien plaisir. Je profite de l’occasion pour vous faire passer ce petit billet où Je voudrais pouvoir m’enveloper pour aller vous voir el pour vous dire que Je suis encore sans place Je m’ennuye toujours de ne pas vous voir ainsi que Minette [Minette_ is a cat] _qui semble m’interroger tour à tour et demander où votes êtes. Je vous envoye aussi la note du linge à blanchir_--_ah, Madame! Je vais cesser de vous écrire mais non de vous regretter_.’ [Illustration: Beatrice Mergen signature] CARICATURES AND LITHOGRAPHY IN PARIS Fifty years ago there lived at Munich a poor fellow, by name Aloys Senefelder, who was in so little repute as an author and artist, that printers and engravers refused to publish his works at their own charges, and so set him upon some plan for doing without their aid. In the first place, Aloys invented a certain kind of ink, which would resist the action of the acid that is usually employed by engravers, and with this he made his experiments upon copper plates, as long as he could afford to purchase them. He found that to write upon the plates backwards, after the manner of engravers, required much skill and many trials; and he thought that, were he to practise upon any other polished surface--a smooth stone, for instance, the least costly article imaginable--he might spare the expense of the copper until he had sufficient skill to use it.