_Auth._ First-rate fate for the wicked _Reginald_. Goes to France during the Franco-German War as a Special Correspondent, and is shot as a Prussian spy. Couldn't be better. Anything else?
_Pub._ A village crowd looking at a representation of "Punch and Judy."
_Auth._ Obviously a recollection of _Edwin's_ schooldays. Label it--"Sometimes he would join the crowd, watching an exhibition of perambulating puppets." Anything else?
_Pub._ A man being thrown from his horse into a brook.
_Auth._ All right! _Angelina_ first falls in love with _Edwin_ when nursing him after an accident in the hunting-field. Label it--"His horse swerved, and _Edwin_ was thrown with great violence into the water." Anything else?
_Pub._ A man with a dark lantern looking, I think, at a mile-stone.
_Auth._ _Reginald_, before his death in France, tries to enter burglariously the dwelling-house of his hated rival. Label--"The misguided wretch paused for a moment while he examined one of the mile-stones." Anything further?
_Pub._ Only two. Which shall we have, a happy or a wretched ending?
_Auth._ Either you please. One's as easy as the other. What are they?
_Pub._ First a man dying in the prairie is threatened by a vulture.
_Auth._ Evidently _Edwin_. You see, we have already disposed of the wicked cousin. What is the other?
_Pub._ Oh, the conventional thing--bridal party in a village church. I wish we could use both.
_Auth._ So we can. Cut down bridal block, and punch out enough of sky in prairie to make room for it. Then give the legend, "And _Edwin_ died happily, for in his vision he saw his love once more as he had hoped to see her. With his last breath he blessed her as she stood beside him at the altar." That will do, and then I can finish off with, "Who knows they may not meet again? THE END."
_Pub._ And now I want to ask your opinion about some trade advertisements. I want to know if we can work them in?
[_Scene closes in upon arrangements of a business-like character._
[Kissing the Book is now to be dispensed with as part of a Juryman's duties.]
LIP to lip is pleasant altogether, But there is no charm in lip to leather All the bards who've sung of osculation, Down from OVID to song's last sensation, Could not lend romance, or even sense, To the Court's poor labial pretence, Always meaningless, and most unpleasant. Here the past _is_ bettered by the present. Kissing is the due of Love and Beauty, Dull and dismal when 'tis made mere duty. Mere lip-loyalty to Love means little-- But to Truth? 'Tis not worth jot or tittle! When from lip to lip in cold formality Passed the grubby cover, in reality Binding kissing made no oath more binding Nor more easy Justice's clear finding. Therefore, thanks to common sense,--long missing-- That makes obsolete _one_ form of kissing!