Q. How was that?

A. For instance, les tricoteuses were represented by comely,
  albeit plump maidens, who seemed more inclined to dance round a
  Maypole than haunt a scaffold.

Q. Were ROBESPIERRE, ST. JUST, and the rest, cruel and vindictive?

A. I should say not; and I found my conclusion on the fact that they
  engaged an actor given to practical joking as an officer of the Public
  Security.

Q. From this, do you take it that ROBESPIERRE must have had a subtle sense of humour?

A. I do; and the impression is strengthened by his order for a
  general slaughter of Ursuline Nuns.

Q. Why should he order such a massacre?

A. To catch the heroine of Thermidor, a lady who had taken the
  vows under the impression that her lover had been killed by the enemy.

Q. Had her lover been killed?

A. Certainly not; he had preferred to surrender.

Q. Can you give me any idea of the component part of a revolutionary
  crowd?

A. At the Opera Comique, a revolutionary crowd seems to consist of
  a number of mournful loungers, who have nothing to do save to take
  a languid interest in the fate of a tearful maiden, and a few gens
  d’armes a little uncertain about their parade-ground.

Q. How do the mournful loungers express their interest in the fate
  of the tearful maiden?

A. By pointing her out one to another, and when she is ordered off
  to execution removing their hats, and fixing I their attention on
  something concealed behind the scenes.

Q. What is your present idea of the Reign of Terror?

A. My present idea of the Reign of Terror is, that it was the
  mildest thing imaginable.  In my opinion, not even a child in arms
  would have been frightened at it.

Q. Do you not consider M. MAYER deserving of honour?

A. Certainly I do.  For has he not removed (with the assistance of M.
  SARDOU and the Opera Comique) several fond illusions of my youth?

* * * * *

[Illustration:  NATURE V. ART.

AEsthetic Friend. “YES, THIS ROOM’S RATHER NICE, ALL BUT THE WINDOW, WITH THESE LARGE BLANK PANES OF PLATE-GLASS!  I SHOULD LIKE TO SEE SOME SORT OF PATTERN ON THEM—­LITTLE SQUARES OR LOZENGES OR ARABESQUES—­”

Philistine. “WELL, BUT THOSE LOVELY CHERRY BLOSSOMS, AND THE LAKE, AND THE DISTANT MOUNTAIN, AND THE BEAUTIFUL SUNSETS, AND THE PURPLE CLOUDS—­ISN’T THAT PATTERN ENOUGH?”]

* * * * *

THE MORNING OF THE DERBY.—­Hamlet considering whether he shall go to Epsom for the great race or not, soliloquises, “Der-be or not Der-be, that is the question.” [N.B.—­As to the other lines, go as you please.  “The rest is silence.”]