llent practice for you to get
accustomed to a platform, too. Of _course_ she will play for you, dear
Mrs. FLITTERMOUSE!

_Mrs. Flitt._ It will be _so_ good of you, Miss WEAVER. And it won't
be like playing to a _real_ audience, you know--poor people are so
easily pleased, poor dears. Then I will put that down to begin with.
(_She makes a note._) Now we must have something quite different for
the next--a reading or something.

_Lady Honor Hyndleggs._ A--nothin' _humorous_, I hope. I do think
we ought to avoid anythin' like descendin' to their level, don't you
know.

_Mr. Lovegroove._ Might try something out of _Pickwick_. "_Bob
Sawyer's Party_," you know. Can't go far wrong with anything out of
DICKENS.

_Miss Diova Rose._ Can't endure him myself. All his characters are
so fearfully common; still--(_tolerantly_) I daresay it might
amuse--a--that class of persons.

_Mrs. Flitt._ I must say I agree with Lady HONOR. We should try and
aim as high as possible--and well, I think _not_ DICKENS, dear Mr.
LOVEGROOVE. _TENNYSON_ might do perhaps; he's written some charmin'
pieces.

_Mr. Lovegr._ Well, fact is, I don't go in for poetry much myself. But
I'll read anythin' of his you think I'm equal to.

_Mrs. Flitt._ Why--a--really, it's so long since I--and I'm afraid
I haven't one of his poems in the house. I suppose they are down at
Barn-end. But I could send to CUTT AND HAWTHORN'S. I daresay _they_
would have a copy somewhere.

_Miss Sibson-Gabler._ Surely TENNYSON is rather--a--retrograde?
Why not read them something to set them _thinking_? It would be an
interesting experiment to try the effect of that marvellous Last Scene
in the _Doll's House_. I'd love to read it. It would be like a breath
of fresh air to them!

_Mrs. P.-W._ Oh! I've seen that at the Langham Hall. You remember,
CECILIA, my taking you there? And CORNEY GRAIN played _Noah_. To be
sure--we were _quite_ amused by it all.

_Miss S.-G._ (_coldly_). This is _not_ amusing--it's a play of
IBSEN'S.

_Mrs. Flitt._ Is that the man who wrote the piece at the
Criterion--what is it, _The Toy Shop_? WYNDHAM acted in it.

_Lady Damp._ No, no; IBSEN is the person there's been all this fuss
about in the papers--he goes in for unconventionality and all that.
I may be wrong, but I think it is _such_ a mistake to have anything
unconventional in an Entertainment for the People.

_Mrs. Flitt._ But if he's being _talked_ about, dear Lady DAMPIER,
people might li