together, form a most valuable document of the times. There is for
instance the China mania--in the following in the incipient stage:--

"O Mamma! O! O! N--N--Nurse has given me my C--C--Cod-liver Oil out
of a p--p--plain white mug" (_December_ 26, 1874).

Then the inimitable colloquies of the aesthetes--and especially the now
famous one about the six-mark tea-pot.

_Aesthetic Bridegroom_. "It is quite consummate, is it not?"

_Intense Bride_. "It is, indeed! Oh, Algernon, let us live up to
it!"

Also the direction, to the architect about the country house:

_Fair Client_. "I want it to be nice and baronial, Queen Anne and
Elizabethan, and all that; kind of quaint and Nuremburgy you
know--regular Old English, with French windows opening to the lawn,
and Venetian blinds, and sort of Swiss balconies, and a loggia. But
I'm sure _you_ know what I mean!" (_November_ 29, 1890).

And farther on in the _Punch_ volumes:--

"O, Mr. Robinson, does not it ever strike you, in listening to
sweet music, that the Rudiment of Potential Infinite Pain is subtly
woven into the tissue of our keenest joy" (_December_ 2, 1891).

But perhaps before closing this chapter we should give some examples of
drawing-room conversation pure and simple, without reference to any sort
of craze, as specimens of their author's skill. Familiarity with the
artist's characters will enable the reader to appreciate the note of a
shy man's agony in some, and of feminine spite in others.

Among the "Speeches to be lived down, if possible," there are these:

_She_. "Let me introduce you to a very charming lady, to take down
to supper."

_He_. "A--thanks--no. I never eat supper."

"By George! I am so hungry I can't talk."

_Fair Hostess_ (on hospitable thoughts intent). "Oh, I'm so glad!"

"Things one would rather have left unsaid":

_Amiable Hostess_. "What! must you go already? Really, Professor,
it's too bad of this sweet young wife of yours to carry you off so
early! She always does!"

_Professor_. "No, no, not _always_, Mrs. Bright. At _most_ houses I
positively have to drag her away!"

"Truths that might have been left unspoken":

_Hostess_. "What? haven't you brought your sisters, Mr. Jones?"

_Mr. Jones_. "No, they couldn't come, Mrs. Smith. The fact is,
they're saving themselves for Mrs. Brown's Dance to-morr