HE February 12. E was beginning to learn, not for the first time in his experience, that kissing is a cumulative poison. The more you get of it, the more you want. The Light that Failed. February 13. HIP me somewheres east of Suez where the best is like SHIP the worst, Where there are n't no Ten Commandments, an' a man can raise a thirst; For the temple-bells are callin', an' it's there that I would be By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin' lazy at the sea — E With our sick beneath the awnings when we went to Mandalay ! Oh, the road to Mandalay, Where the flyin'-fishes play, An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer China 'crost the Bay. February 14. Mandalay. XCEPTING, always, falling off a horse there is nothing more fatally easy than marriage before the Registrar. The ceremony costs less than fifty shillings, and is remarkably like walking into a pawn-shop. After the declarations of residence have been put in, four minutes will cover the rest of the proceedings-fees, attestation, and all. Then the Registrar slides the blotting-pad over the names, and says grimly, with his pen between his teeth : "Now you're man and wife ;" and the couple walk out into the street, feeling as if something were horribly illegal somewhere. But that ceremony holds and can drag a man to his undoing just as thoroughly as the "long as ye both shall live curse from the altar-rails, with the bridesmaids giggling behind, and "The Voice that breathed o'er Eden" lifting the roof off. In the Pride of His Youth. February 15. MORIARTY thought her something she never was, and in that belief saved himself. Which was just as good as though she had been everything that he had imagined. But the question is, what claim will Mrs. Reiver have to the credit of Moriarty's salvation, when her day of reckoning comes? In Error. And guarding calls not Thee to guard, For frantic boast and foolish word, Amen. Recessional. WHEN February 17. HEN the grief of the soul is too heavy for endurance may be a little eased by speech; and, moreover, the mind of a true man is as a well, and the pebble of confession dropped therein sinks and is no more seen. SHE February 18. Dray Wara Yow Dee. HE was good and very lovely — possessed what innocent people at home call a “ Spanish" complexion, with thick blue-black hair growing low down on the forehead, into a "widow's peak," and big violet eyes under eyebrows as black and as straight as the borders of a Gazette Extraordinary, when a big man dies. But - but - but Well, she was a very sweet girl and very pious, but for many reasons she was "impossible." ONE February 19. Quite so. Kidnapped. NE of these days he will marry; but he will marry a sweet pink-and-white maiden, on the Government House List, with a little money and some influential connections, as every wise man should. Kidnapped. February 20. A BREATH of wind, a Border bullet's flight, Ceases, the punkah stops, and falls the night For You or Me. Do those who live decline Trust me, To-Day's Most Indispensables, The Last Department. February 21. L OVE knows no caste. In Flood Time. “I February 22. KNOW what you're going to say. Scores of idle men up on leave. I admit it, but they are all of two objectionable sets. The Civilian who'd be delightful if he had the military man's knowledge of the world and style, and the military man who'd be adorable if he had the Civilian's culture." "Detestable word! Have Civilians culchaw?" The Education of Otis Yeere. February 23. NAFFERTON was not a big man; but he had the reputation of being very "earnest. man can do much with a Government. earnest man once who nearly wrecked An "earnest There was an but all India knows that story. I am not sure what real "earnestness A very fair imitation can be manufactured by neglecting is. to dress decently, by mooning about in a dreamy, misty sort of way, by taking office-work home after staying in office till seven, and by receiving crowds of native gentlemen on Sundays. That is one sort of " earnestness." Pig. February 24. “I T NEVER made a mistake in my life—at least, never one that I could n't explain away afterwards.' The Education of Otis Yeere. February 25. ANATION spoke to a nation, A Queen sent word to a throne: Daughter am I in my mother's house, The gates are mine to open As the gates are mine to close, And I set my house in order, Said the Lady of the Snows. Our Lady of the Snows. February 26. HERE are many things - including actual assault with the clenched fist that a wife will endure; but seldom a wife can bear with a long course of brutal, hard chaff, making light of her weaknesses, her headaches, her small fits of gayety, her dresses, her queer little attempts to make herself attractive to her husband when she knows that she is not what she has been, and - worst of all the love that she spends on her children. The Bronckhorst Divorce-Case. |