nded to promote a garrulous interest in
her conduct.

It was a sad pity that we were not permitted to witness any phase of
this adventure. One seemed to be assisting at a farce with the fun left
out. I should have greatly enjoyed being present at the moment when her
ladyship claimed the hospitality of her mother-in-law's roof. But
perhaps this experience would have left me in a frame of mind too
frivolous for the right reception of the grave things that were to
follow.

Yet the play was mixed of all moods, from gay to earnest, and offered
excellent scope for the versatility of Miss Marie Tempest. Mr.
Clarence's humour, on the other hand, was not so well served; and there
were frequent _longueurs_ during the episodes in which the _Dowager Lady
Wynmarten_ figured. She was meant to be a terror, and had some very
vicious things to say; but Miss Agnes Thomas delivered them with
superfluously well-bred restraint, and the level tone of her bitter
suavity tended to become a little tedious.

Mr. Graham Browne showed a very nice self-repression as the widow's
dummy. But he let himself go with his cigarettes which in moments of
emotion he threw away with an appalling recklessness after the first two
whiffs.

The rest of the cast did ample justice to a play which, if it is Mr.
Powell's first, must be commended for its promise. But the next time he
writes a Four-Act Comedy he must try and give us more than one Act
without any tea in it.

O. S.

* * * * *

"MILESTONES."

(_Ladies of the coloured hair school are reported to be painting dragons
on their cheeks in place of complexion spots._)

When the world was very young
And agog with derring-do,
Knights went courting maids who hung
Chained, for dragons' teeth to chew;
Found their lass, and set her free,
Having duly on the spot
Slain the dragon (or, maybe,
Having failed to slay, did not).

Later, when your maid demure,
Long of lash and coy of mien,
Seemed a conquest swift and sure,
Fiercer monsters stepped between:
Mrs. Grundies, grey and grim,
Kept Miss Proper closely tied;
Beaus dissolved before the prim
Portly dragon at her side.

Now there dawns a lighter day;
Chaperons are nearly dead;
Undefended lies the way
For your amorous wight to tread,
Yet we still must pay our toll,
We who woo the guarded rose:
Frightful at the very goal
Lurks the dragon _by her