_Second Venerable Employé_. Yes--Hope, brother, hope!

[_As the Scene closes, the entire Establishment are left
continuing the self-sustaining, but rather profitless
employment, indefinitely. Curtain._

* * * * *

_A Son of the Pool_. By the Author of _A Daughter of the Pyramids_.

* * * * *

CHARLES KEENE

BORN AUGUST 10, 1823. DIED JANUARY 4, 1891.

What words avail to honour friends departed,
Gone from the gatherings which so long they graced?
What phrase seems fit when comrades loyal-hearted
Mourn a loved presence late by death displaced?

No formal elegiacs fashioned coldly,
Beseem the memory of that manly soul,
Whose simple, downright spirit trod so boldly
Life's most sequestered ways from start to goal.

Not rank's trim pleasaunce, nor parades of fashion
Tempted his genius; his the great highway
Where, free from courtly pride and modish passion,
Toil tramps, free humours crowd, rough wastrels stray.