so urgently that she longed to be at the job.  No one wondered at her choice, for he was, of course, the most handsome and excellent of men.

Ultimately the Fairy broke her spell in a fit of exasperation, but
without any gratifying result.  The Princess seemed happier than
ever and would sometimes say to a slightly puzzled friend:—­

“Hasn’t Felix improved wonderfully since I married him?”

* * * * *

“From 1910 to 1916 he was Viceroy in India, governing the Dependency through very critical years and enjoying general esteem, as was made clear in 1912, when an attempt was made to assassinate him at Delhi.”—­“Daily Mail” on Lord Hardinge.

It sounds like a succes d’estime.

* * * * *

[Illustration:  THE PUBLIC BENEFACTOR.

MR. SMILLIE.  “I CAN’T BEAR TO THINK OF YOUR PAYING SO MUCH FOR YOUR COAL. 
I MUST PUT THAT RIGHT; I MUST SEE THAT YOU DON’T GET ANY.”]

* * * * *

[Illustration:  First Tramp.  “IN THIS BIT O’ NOOSPAPER IT SAYS:  ’THE ’OLE CAUSE OF THE WORLD’S PRESENT DISORDER IS THE UNIVERSAL SPIRIT OF UNREST. I WONDER IF THAT’S TRUE?”

Second Tramp.  “I AIN’T NOTICED IT.”]

* * * * *

THE COAL CUP.

It seems to me that we all take a great deal of interest in the miners when they strike, but not nearly enough when they hew.  And yet this business of hacking large lumps of fuel out of a hole, since civilisation really depends on it, ought to be represented to us from day to day as the beautiful and thrilling thing that it really is.  Yet if we put aside for a moment Mr. SMILLIE’S present demands, we find the main topics of discussion in the daily Press as I write are roughly these:—­

    (1) The prospects of League Football and the Cup Ties.

    (2) Ireland.

    (3) The prevalence of deafness amongst blue-eyed cats.

    (4) Mesopotamia.

    (5) The Fall of Man.

(6) The sale of The Daily Mail, whose circulation during the coming winter is for some reason or other supposed to be almost as important to the children of England as their own.

Of all these topics the first is, of course, by far the most absorbing, and almost everyone has remarked how the love of sport, for which Britons are famous, is growing more passionate than ever.  It is not only cricket and football, of course; only the other day there was a shilling sweepstake on the St. Leger in our office and, from what I hear of the form of Westmorland in the County Croquet Championship during the past season—­but I have no time to discuss these things now.