dlike
ingenuousness as to suggest that really this too easy spot-stroke should
be barred to playwrights), and the idiotic girl promptly engages herself
to _Richard_, who is of course in love with a patently naughty married
woman. The most reckless of lovers from the moment when in his ardour he
(apparently) bites this lady's hand in the First Act, in full view of
the family, till he plans a flirtation by the Cheviot postern gate on
the very eve of his marriage to _Diana_, he is an obviously doomed
villain. The lady is surprised by _George_ in the act of knocking thrice
on the said postern within. When three knocks are heard without together
with the voice of _Richard_, the _Duke_ really begins to suspect
something. Virtuous imbecility prevails over villainous stupidity. The
final blow is dealt upon the _Gorndyke_ nose. _Diana_ is retrieved by
this last of the safe-guarders, and we are left to a melancholy
calculation as to what the mental capacity of their issue is likely to
be.

[Illustration: THE SOUL'S AWAKENING.

_Nalet_, the valet (Mr. LEON QUARTERMAINE), having been dismissed for
not calling _George de Lacorfe_ (Sir GEORGE ALEXANDER) in the morning,
makes good by waking his master's soul up at one o'clock at night.]

A good deal of spontaneous and honest laughter, the best of
testimonials, greeted this rather ingenuous extravaganza. I think Mrs.
CLIFFORD MILLS would do well not to prolong her mystifications beyond
the point when they are quite clear to her audience. May I without
boastfulness record that I guessed all about what _Richard_ was going to
do with the tiara quite three minutes before a well-known editor in
front of me gave away the secret in a hoarse whisper to his neighbour?
And that was some time before the author had finished the "preparation"
of the business. And may I ask why _Richard_ was forced to so fatuous a
contrivance as the pawning of the tiara to make the exigent _Samuels_
stay their hands for a week? True he couldn't tell them about the
Cheviot deal, which was a secret between himself and _George_; but he
could surely have used the fact of his coming marriage with _Diana's_
money? And why didn't _Diana_ write to her mother and ask her what was
the solemn warning about _Richard_ that she had on the tip of her tongue
when she was interrupted just before going abroad? There _is_ a mail to
Singapore, isn't there? And does a _George_, succeeding to a dukedom,
become "_Cheviot_" to his siste