"'It's use in Time is to environ us.'" "Heavens!" whispered Fenton to Mrs. Staggchase; "fancy that incarnate respectability environed by 'blessed evil!'" "For my part," she returned, in the same tone, "I feel as if I were visiting a lunatic asylum." "Yes, that line does make it beautifully clear," observed the voice of Miss Catherine Penwick; "and I think that's so beautiful about the exposed brain, and lidless eyes, and disemprisoned heart. The image is so exquisite when he speaks of their withering up at once." Fenton made a droll grimace for the benefit of his neighbor, and then observed with great apparent seriousness,-- "The poem is most remarkable for the intimate knowledge it shows of human nature. Take a line like:" 'Men have outgrown the shame of being fools;' "We can see such striking instances of its truth all about us." "How can you?" exclaimed Elsie Dimmont, under her breath. Fenton had not been able wholly to keep out of his tone the mockery which he intended, and several people looked at him askance. Fortunately for him, a nice old gentleman who, being rather hard of hearing, had not caught what was said, now broke in with the inevitable question, which, sooner or later, was sure to come into every discussion of the club: "Isn't this poem to be most satisfactorily understood when it is regarded as an allegory?" The members, however, did not take kindly to this suggestion in the present instance. The question passed unnoticed, while a severe-faced woman inquired, with an air of vast superiority,-- "I have understood that Bishop Blougram is intended as a portrait of Cardinal Wiseman; can any one tell me if Gigadibs is also a portrait?" "Oh, Lord!" muttered Fenton, half audibly. "I can't stand any more of this." And at that moment a servant came to tell him that his carriage was waiting. IV NOW HE IS FOR THE NUMBERS. Romeo and Juliet; ii.----4. When Mr. and Mrs. Fenton were in the carriage, driving from Mrs. Gore's to Mrs. Frostwinch's, Arthur broke into a pleasant little laugh, as if a sudden thought had amused him. "Why in the world, Edith," he asked, "couldn't you let that moon-calf Candish fight his own battle to-night? He would have tied himself all up in two moments, with a little judicious help I should have been glad to give him." "I knew it," was her answer, "and that is precisely why I wanted to stop things. What possible amusement it can be to you to get the better of a man who is so little a match for you in argument, I don't understand." "I never begin," Fenton responded. "Of course if he starts it I have to defend myself."