hy or encouragement from a
professional. They're all the same.

[_They take their seats,_ TIFFINGTON _and_ JARP _on one
side of the table, the other three opposite them. The
supper begins._

_Friend of the G. A._ (_on_ TIFFINGTON's _right_). Splendid performance,
was it not? I never saw him in finer form in my life. It's quite
impossible to imagine anything more dignified and pathetic than his
death-scene.

_Tiffington_ (_dubiously_). Hum! Yes. I'm not sure I should do it like
that quite. What do you say, GUSHBY?

_Gushby._ It's not my idea at all. He spins it out far too long. I
should like to see you act that, TIFF.

_Tiffington_ (_complacently_). Ah, well, so you might if things were
managed with common fairness. But (_bitterly_) you know well enough
there's a regular conspiracy against me. (_To Friend of G. A._) Now, of
course, you've read the notices of our performance of _Heads or Tails_?
Yes. I thought you had. Well, you _must_ have observed, that I don't get
more than two lines in any one of them, not a word more than two lines
upon my soul, and yet any fool knows that my part was the chief one. But
there you are. The beggars daren't abuse me. They know the public won't
stand that, so, just to spite me, they try to leave me out. But they're
very much mistaken if they think I care. Pooh! I snap my fingers at them
and their wretched conspiracy.

[_Snaps them, and drinks moodily. The supper proceeds.
Conversation everywhere ranges over all kinds of
topics,--literature, art, the drama, the political
situation, the last Divorce Case. The Amateurs continue
to discuss themselves._

_Jarp_ (_to_ BOLDERO). Did you see that infamous notice in _The
Moonbeam_? Just like that rascal PENFOLD. He can't help showing his
jealousy, because we never asked him to join the Perambulators.

_Boldero._ Yes. There you have it in a nutshell. I tell you what it is,
we shall have to exclude all critics from our show in future.

_Tiffington._ Ah! that would punish them--and serve them right, too. Are
you going to sing to-night, HALL?

_Hall_ (_with a sigh of resignation_). I suppose I shall have to. I told
BATTERDOWN I should be ready, if wanted.

_Jarp._ Have you got anything new?

_Hall._ Rather. Something particularly neat, I think. I call it "_The
Super at Supper_." It goes like this:--

[_Hums to his friends, who listen with rapt attention,
occasionally interchanging glances exp