--and that's eggs.

_Mrs. All._ (_with elegant languor_). I hardly ever eat an egg.
Oysters, now, I'm _very_ fond of--_fried_, that is.

_Mrs. Ard._ They're very nice done in the real shells. Or on scollops.
We have silver--or rather--(_with a magnanimous impulse to tone down
her splendour_), silver-plated ones.

_Mrs. All._ How funny--so have we! (_Both women feel an increase of
liking for one another._) I like them cooked in milk, too.

[_The first barrier being satisfactorily passed, they proceed,
as usual, to the subject of ailments._

_Mrs. Ard._ My doctor _does_ do me good, I must say--he never lets me
get ill. He just sees your liver's all right, and then he feeds you
up.

_Mrs. All._ That's like _my_ doctor; he always tells me, if he didn't
keep on constantly building me up, I should go all to pieces in no
time. That's how I come to be here. I always run down at the end of
every Season.

_Mrs. Ard._ (_feeling that Mrs. ALLBUTT can't be "anybody very
particular" after all_). What--to Margate? Fancy! Don't you find you
get tired of it? I should.

_Mrs. All._ (_with dignity_). I didn't say I always went to Margate.
On the contrary I have never been here before, and shouldn't be here
now, if my doctor hadn't told me it was my only chance.

_Mrs. Ard._ (_reassured_). I only came down here on my little girl's
account. One of those nasty croopy coughs, you know, and hoops with
it. But she's almost well already. I will say it's a wonderful air.
Still, the worst of Margate is, one isn't likely to meet a soul one
knows!

_Mrs. All._ Well, that's the charm of it--to me. One has enough of
that during the Season.

_Mrs. Ard._ (_recognising the superiority of this view_). Indeed one
has. What a whirl it has been to be sure!

[Illustration: "Dear, dear! _not_ a county family!"]

_Mrs. All._ The Season? Why, I never remember one with so little
doing. Most of the best houses closed--hardly a single really smart
party--one or two weddings--and that's positively all!

_Mrs. Ard._ (_slightly crushed, in spite of a conviction
that--socially speaking--Balham has been rather more brilliant than
usual this year._) Yes, that's very true. I suppose the Elections have
put a stop to most things?

_Mrs. All._ There never was much going on. _I_ should rather have said
it was Marlborough House being shut up that made everything so dull
from the first.

_Mrs. Ard._ Ah, that _does_ make such a difference, doesn't i