10/- to 15/-."

An excellent idea for City dinners.

* * * * *

"DULCE ET DECORUM."

O young and brave, it is not sweet to die,
To fall and leave no record of the race,
A little dust trod by the passers-by,
Swift feet that press your lonely resting-place;
Your dreams unfinished, and your song unheard--
Who wronged your youth by such a careless word?

All life was sweet--veiled mystery in its smile;
High in your hands you held the brimming cup;
Love waited at your bidding for a while,
Not yet the time to take its challenge up;
Across the sunshine came no faintest breath
To whisper of the tragedy of death.

And then, beneath the soft and shining blue,
Faintly you heard the drum's insistent beat;
The echo of its urgent note you knew,
The shaken earth that told of marching feet;
With quickened breath you heard your country's call,
And from your hands you let the goblet fall.

You snatched the sword, and answered as you went,
For fear your eager feet should be outrun,
And with the flame of your bright youth unspent
Went shouting up the pathway to the sun.
O valiant dead, take comfort where you lie.
So sweet to live? Magnificent to die!

* * * * *

THE LECTURE.

"Francesca," I said, "will you do me--I mean, will you accept a favour
from me?"

"If," she said, "your Majesty deigns to grant one there can be no
question of my accepting it. It will fall on me and I shall have to
submit to it."

"Well," I said, "it's this way. You know I'm going to--a-hem!--deliver a
lecture at Faringham next Monday?"

"I gathered," she said, "that you were up to something from the amount
of books you were piling up on your writing-table. Besides you've been
complaining of the ink a good deal, and that's always a bad sign."

"Hadn't I mentioned Faringham and the lecture?"

"You had distantly alluded to something impending and you had looked at
the A.B.C. several times, but it stopped at that."

"How careless of me!" I said. "I know I meant to tell you all about it."

"You didn't make your meaning clear. It's all part of the secretiveness
of men. They tell one nothing and then they're offended if we don't
anticipate all their movements."

"We will," I said, "let that pass. It is an unjust remark, but I will
not retaliate. Anyhow, I now inform you formally and officially that I
am going to F