NEW PUBLICATION.—"The Dumb D." Musical Novel. Companion to The Silent Sea, by Mrs. MACLEOD.
INNS AND OUTS.
No. IV.—THE WINDOW-SHUTTERS.
"And efery time he gif a shoomp, he make de winders sound."
I do not allude to the white wooden Venetian work that shades the Grand Hôtel windows. It is of the clique who insist on shutting the windows that I write. Briefly speaking, the inmates of the Grand Hôtel may be divided into two classes—the window-openers and the window-shutters. The former are all British. The same Britons who at the Club scowl at a suspicion of draught, and luxuriate in an asphyxiating atmosphere, band against "the foreigners" in this respect. We have a national reputation to keep up. We are the nation of soap, of fresh air, of condescending discontent; and when we are on the Continent every one else, including the native, is "a foreigner;" we carry our nationality about with us like a camp-stool; we squat on it; we are jealous of it; it is a case of "Regardez, mais ne touchez pas!"
COMMERCIAL INSTINCT.
Original Genius (soliloquising). "Lor, it 'id bin a crool Shame to miss an Opportunity like this 'ere. The gov'nor oughter lemme 'ave Ten Bob on that job!">[