The Adventures Of Don Pasquale.

with a sigh those glad days of old , and kindly voices and smiling faces , from out of the dim ancl vanished past . It is affecting at times , to remember how the old band of friends , fast and unselfish , has been disassociated , dissevered , and dispersed by the relentless march , the resistless episodes of years ! Thackeray , in well-known words , has said , and said most truly , though the reflection be perhaps trite after all , —

There s Jack has made a wondrous marriage , There ' s laughing Tom is laughing yet , There ' s brave Augustus drives his carriage , There ' s poor old Fred in the Gazette . On James ' s head the grass is growing , Good Lord ! the world has wagged apace Since here we set the claret flowing , And drank and ate the ' Bouillabaisse . '"

And thus as " Time " runs away , aud brings with it "its strange conceits , " as it does with us all , we- like to re-psople the scene with the forms and faces and voices and . sympathies of the past , ( we have none so pleasant in after times ) , —we seek to re-colour the now dimmed landscape with the brightness of early dawn , or the brilliant lights of happy maturer years . But alas ! all in vain . The " inexorable Three" * have clouded over alike our hopes and fears , iu that gloom of evening which settles down the meads

upon and on the hills of Life . But as I said before I question really whether the old soldier ever can forget that he once was a soldier , just as I believe , " inter alia multa , " that Orton was most truly an impostor " de la premiere qualite , " because he did not know what " telling off" meant . No real soldier could have forgotten such " ground work" of all drill and movements . Tes , all of us who once have " shouldered a musket , " like to recall the past days and friends ' of " ours , "

though" Jeffrey sleeps ' neatli flowers at Nice , Aud Paul ' s forgotten in Kensal Green . " The soldier remains the soldier to the end of his days , notwithstanding the changes and chances of Life , ancl , bke the " old war dog" " Black Dawson" commemorated by Chandler , they follow with beating heart the " old battalion , " go where it may , do what it will .

Ere long with our heroes and heroines those inevitable preparations began , which terminated in that serious crisis of their destiny which changed their condition and controlled their lives . For marriage , look at it as lightly and carelessly , as you will , is a very ticklish step . It may lead you to happiness ; it may be a leap in the dark , which may land you—where' ? Well , who can tell ? But , as Madame Allegri liked to observe , " now its all settled , why should we have ?

any more delays'There ' s nothing sentimental about marriage , —it's all matter-of-fact . " And so , according to her sagacious arrangements , the three couples were all properly married and blessed the same day by a Roman Cardinal of high lineage and great amiability , who paid Madame Allegri ancl the two brides many charming compliments ; and , as Compton irreverently remarked , they were carefully " tied up and clone for . " And PaesieUo records in his diary these striking words— "I have today three les

: seen - coup married , six human beings bound , fast bound , to one another for the rest of their journey . If they are " simpatico , " if their tastes and tempers agree , all is well with them ; but if they don't—what then ? I don't like to anticipate what the lot of such unthinking mortals must be , and so I wish them good luck . But marriage is a very serious thing . " ( This passage he has underlined . ) " Let us hope that it is all for the best !"