aloof and inscrutable; romantic, too, in
his very detachment from the sentiment of romance that he provokes.
Miss FREDA GODFREY, the new _Wendy_, would have seemed good if we had
not known better ones. To be frank, she looked rather too mature for
the part; she needed a more childlike air to give piquancy to her
assumption of maternal responsibilities. It was pleasant to see Mr.
HENRY AINLEY unbend to the task, simple for him, of playing _Captain
Hook_ and _Mr. Darling_. One admired his self-control in refusing to
impose new subtleties upon established and sacred tradition.

Of familiar friends, age has not withered the compelling charms of Mr.
SHELTON'S _Smee_, nor, in the person of Mr. CLEAVE, has custom staled
the infinite futility of _Slightly_. I was glad, too, to find Miss
SYBIL CARLISLE back in the part of _Mrs. Darling_, which she played
most appealingly.

The lagoon scene was cut out this year; perhaps it was thought that
there is enough lagoon in London just now. I could more willingly have
spared the business of _Mr. Darling_ and the kennel, the one blot in
the play. My impression of this grotesquerie has not changed since I
first saw _Peter Pan_.

Among new impressions was a feeling that the domestic details of
the First Act are a little too leisurely, so that I appreciated the
impatience of my little neighbour for the arrival of _Peter Pan_,
whose acquaintance she had still to make. Also from the presence of
children in my party I became conscious how much of the humour of
the play--its burlesque, for example, of the stage villain--is only
seizable by children who have grown up. BARRIE wrote it, of course, to
please the eternal child in himself, but forgot now and then what an
unusual child it was.

O. S.

* * * * *

On Wednesday, January 5th, 1921, at 3.30 and 8 P.M., in the Hall of
the Inner Temple, the "Time and Talents" Guild will give a series of
"Action Tableaux," dramatised by Miss WILSON-FOX, in illustration of
the history of Southwark and Old Bermondsey from Saxon times to
the present day. There will be singing, in character, by the Stock
Exchange Choir. The profits will go in aid of the Settlement in
Bermondsey, which has been carried on for twenty-one years among the
factory girls by members of "Time and Talents," and to-day includes
a Hostel, Clubs, a Country Holiday Fund and a cottage in the country.
Applications for tickets may be made to Miss WILSON-FOX,