why should I? I know
nothing about the South Seas."

My stock fell thirty points and I crumbled bread nervously, hoping for
something sensible to say; but at this moment "half-time" mercifully
set in. My partner on the other side turned to me suavely and asked if
I thought the verses in _Abraham Lincoln_ were a beauty or a blemish;
and with the assistance of the London stage, the flight to America,
Mrs. FULTON'S _Blight_, Mr. WALPOLE'S _Secret City_ and the prospects
of the new Academy, I sailed serenely into port. She was as easy and
agreeable a woman as that other was difficult, and before she left for
the drawing-room she had invited me to lunch and I had accepted.

As I said Good-night to my hostess I asked why she had told me that my
first partner had been in the South Seas. She said that she had said
nothing of the sort; what she had said was that during the War she had
been stationed with her husband, Colonel Blank, at Southsea.

* * * * *

THE MESSAGE OF HULL.

The Hull Election has been keenly discussed in various papers, but by
none with more enthusiasm than _The Daily News_. In a special article
from the luminous pen of "A.G.G.," in the issue of April 12th, the
true inwardness of the portent is thus revealed:--

"The message of Hull is a message for all the world. It is the
announcement that this country, whatever its Government may do, will
not have a French peace. It is a declaration to America that the
English people are with her in her determination to have a League
of Nations' settlement and no other. It is the repudiation of
Conscription, of war on Russia, of the permanent military occupation
of Germany, of imperialism and grab, of war policy in Ireland, of
repression in Egypt, of the reckless profligacy and corruption that
are plunging Europe into Bolshevism and hurrying this country to
irretrievable ruin."

We confess that we are staggered by the moderation, not to say
modesty, of "A.G.G." as an interpreter of the meaning of the Hull
Election. He has omitted infinitely more than he has inscribed in
his list.

The return of Commander KENWORTHY stands, of course, for all these
things, but for many others of at least equal importance.

It means the disappearance of influenza, the ravages of which
are clearly traceable to the political virus disseminated by the
Coalition.

It means the rehabilitation of Mr. BIRRELL and his return to public
life as English Amba