p. She remained there a few
moments, one foot on my shoulder and one on Sir Edward Carson's--she is not
a light woman--and then we helped her down, Asquith and I. When I got back
to my lodgings in Half-Moon Street I found that the governess's brother,
who had been lucky enough to see a Zeppelin, had gone home. I shall not
soon forget my experience." This narrative was wonderful to my left-hand
neighbor. It made her feel as if she had really been there and seen it all
with her own eyes.

Mr. Mullinger, who was the next speaker on Mrs. Watkin's list, and who had
returned from Europe on the same boat with Mr. Slicer, had had a different
experience. On the evening of the raid he was in a box at the theatre where
Guitry, who had run over from Paris, was appearing in the little role of
_Phedre_, when the noise of firing was heard above the alexandrines of
Racine. "With great presence of mind," so Mr. Mullinger told us, "Guitry
came down stage, right, and said in quizzical tone to us: '_Eh bien, chere
petite folle et vieux marcheur_, just run up to the roof, will you please,
and tell us what it's all about, don't you know.' The Princess and I stood
up and answered in the same tone, 'Right-o, _mon vieux_,' and were aboard
the lift in no time. From the roof we could see nothing, and as it was
raining and we had no umbrellas, we of course didn't stay. When we got back
I stepped to the front of the box and said: 'The Princess and Mr. Mullinger
beg to report that on the roof it is raining rain.' The words were nothing,
if you like, but I spoke them just like that, with a twinkle in my eye, and
perhaps it was that twinkle which reassured the house and started a roar of
laughter. The performance went on as if nothing remarkable had happened.
Wonderfully poised, the English." And this narrative, too, was so fortunate
as to satisfy my left-hand neighbor. It made her feel as if she had been
there herself, and heard all these wonderful things with her own ears.

After that, until near the end of dinner, it was all Zeppelins, and I hope
I convey to everyone within sound of my voice something of my own patriotic
pride in a country whose natives when abroad among foreigners consort so
freely and easily with the greatest of these. No discordant note was heard
until the very finish, when young Puttins, who as everybody knows has not
been further from New York than Asbury Park all summer, told us that on the
night of the raid he too had been in