a happy smile on her face, her head resting on the shoulder of a gentleman who was an utter stranger to the somewhat scandalised old lady. "And not a young man either, my dear," said this latter, recounting at a later date the circumstance to a mutual friend. They did not hear her approach, so she coughed diplomatically. Roused by the sound, and by the half-reproving words, "My dear Hilda," the pair looked up for a moment somewhat embarrassed. But Hilda soon recovered herself; introducing Geoffry as quite an old friend of ours."

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"So I should think, my dear," said the old lady, drily: "I quite understand; there's no need to explain," and during the walk back, accompanied by Geoffry, to the house where

IN constructing the new Law Courts thirty-five millions of bricks have been used in the massive pile, and one million cubic feet of Portland stone. The ornamental carving alone represented 700,000 hours of mechanical labour.

HEALTH.-Who would not be covetous, and with reason, if health could be purchased with gold? Who not ambitious if it were at the command of power, or restored to honour? But alas! a white staff will not help gouty feet to walk better than a common cane; nor a blue ribbon bind up a wound as well as a fillet; the glitter of gold or of diamonds will but hurt sore eyes, instead of curing them; and an aching head will be no more eased by wearing a crown instead of a common nightcap.—Sir W. Temple.

A WARRIOR riding over the field of battle, when the fight was over, came, as he picked his steps among the dead, to a body which, stirring, showed some signs of life. The bleeding form wore the dress of a foe. Regardless of that, he said to his attendant, "Give him a draught of wine," and as the officer stooped down to do so, he, discovering, through the mists that were gathering on his dying eye, in this good Samaritan, the general of the troops against which he had been fighting, raised himself on his elbow, drew his pistol, and with deadly hate, fired it at his benefactor's head. Happily the bullet missed its mark, and the general, as soon as he had recovered from his surprise, with a forgiveness truly magnanimous, said, "Give it him all the same."-Dr. Guthrie.

A REMARKABLE FISH.-During the recent scientific cruise of the "Travailleur," there was taken off the coasts of Morocco, and from a depth of about 1,270 fathoms, a fish of very singular character. It is about a foot and a half long and of a deep black colour. Its most distinguishing feature, however, is a huge mouth cavity, which is quite disproportionate to the small, tapering body, and capable, through the arrangement of the jaws, the presence of extensible membranes, &c. (as

M. Vaillant describes in Comptes Rendus), of a very wide enlargement of the cavity. It may be fitly compared to the well-known pouch of the pelican; and M. Vaillant thinks it probable that food accumulates in the pouch and is there partly digested. The locomotive organs are of the most rudimentary nature. The paired fins are represented merely by two very small appendices, which may be considered pectoral fins; there are no ventral fins, but a dorsal and anal are present. The respiratory apparatus is of unique composition. There is no swimming bladder. It is proposed to call this peculiar fish Eurypharynx pelecanoides (the fish with pelican-like, wide pharynx, so to speak).

WHAT GREATNESS MAY COME TO.--To read of the "Father of the mighty line of Pharaoh " figuring as "dried fish" in the customs' entries of his own land looks curious enough. Such, however, was the description under which the founder of the Pharaonic dynasties were suffered to pass through his sometime territory but a few days ago. Mons. Maspero, leaving the Boolak Museum in view of contingencies that might arise during the late campaign, determined to take with him the mummy of Meranza, the most ancient of the Pharaohs. At the railway station, the bookingclerk refused to pass the preserved monarch, unless his value was declared and a corresponding payment made. There was a difficulty; so matters were amicably arranged by paying first-class fare for his defunct majesty. But then the octroi or city dues at Alexandria had to be thought of. So looking over the list, Mons. Maspero found that salt fish paid a mere trifle upon entry, and accor dingly the first Pharaoh of Egypt entered the last city of his empire as dried fish, paying he corresponding tax. His descendants are, as it happens, not in their graves they have for the most part been removed, or assuredly they would turn in their narrow sepulchres to learn that their great progenitor Meranza had been so ignominiously smuggled through his own dominions as a package of dried fish.-Jewish World.