t in London.
Very ingenious plan. None of your Chantrey Bequest business. Three
pictures and one piece of sculpture are to be bought each year in
London. Fixed price L400 each, large or small. Trustees are to be
business men--bank directors. But they can't choose the works. The works
are to be chosen by the students at South Kensington and the Academy
Schools. Works by R.A.'s and A.R.A.'s are absolutely barred. Works by
students themselves absolutely barred, too. Cute that, eh? That's the
arrangement for England. Similar arrangement for France, Italy, and
Germany. He gives the thing a start by making it a present of his own
collection--stored somewhere in Paris. I don't mean his own
paintings--he bars those. Unusually modest, eh?

HONORIA. How perfectly splendid! We shall have a real live gallery at
last. Surely Anselm, after that--

LOOE. Quite beside the point. I shall certainly oppose.

PETER. Oppose what?

LOOE. The burial in the Abbey. I shall advise Lady Leonard Alcar--

PETER. No use, Father. Take my word. The governor's made up his mind.
He's been fearfully keen on art lately. I don't know why. We were in
front of everybody else with the news of Ilam Carve's death, and the
governor's making a regular pet of him. He says it's quite time we
buried an artist in Westminster Abbey, and he's given instructions to
the whole team. Didn't you see the Mercury this morning? Anybody who
opposes a national funeral for Ilam Carve will be up against the
governor. Of course, I tell you that as a friend--confidentially.

LOOE. (Shaken.) Well, I shall see what Lady Leonard says.

CARVE. (Rising in an angry, scornful outburst.) You'd bury him in
Westminster Abbey because he's a philanthropist, not because he's an
artist. That's England all over.... Well, I'm hanged if I'll have it.

LOOE. But, my dear sir----

CARVE. And I tell you another thing--he's not dead.

PETER. Not dead--what next?

CARVE. I am Ilam Carve.

HONORIA. (Soothingly.) Poor dear! He's not himself.

CARVE. That's just what I am. (Sinks back exhausted.)

PETER. (Aside to LOOE.) Is he mad, Father? Nothing but a clerk after
all. And yet he takes a private room at the Grand Babylon, and then he
refuses a hundred and fifty of the best and goes on like this. And now,
blessed if he isn't Ilam Carve! (Laughs.)

LOOE. I really think we ought to leave.

HONORIA. (To JANET.) He's a little unhinged! But how charming he is.

JANET. (Prudently resenting HO