* * * * * MANNERS.--In the dining-room of respectable society it is not considered correct to put your fingers into the plate before you. But at church, into the plate that is set before you, all are expected to put their alms. * * * * * [Illustration: FEMININE AMENITIES _Visitor._ “Your governess seems _very_ good-natured.” _Lady of the House._ “Yes, poor thing, her father lost a lot of money, so I took her as governess for the children.” _Visitor._ “Poor, poor thing! Isn’t it terrible how unfortunate some people are!”] * * * * * [Illustration: FELINE AMENITIES “How kind of you to call--I’m so sorry to have kept you waiting!” “Oh, don’t mention it--I’ve not been at all bored! I’ve been trying to imagine what I should do to make this room look comfortable if it were mine!”] * * * * * [Illustration: _Fair Hostess_ (_to Mrs. Masham, who is looking her very best_). “Howdydo, dear? I hope you’re not so tired as you _look_!”] * * * * * [Illustration: THE LIFE OF THE PARTY “I say, Brown, let’s try and get into the same mourning-coach as Major Bardolph. He always comes out so jolly on these occasions!”] * * * * * [Illustration: A VALUABLE ACQUISITION _Dutiful Nephew._ “Oh, uncle, I thought you wouldn’t mind my bringing my friend Grigg, from our office. He ain’t much to look at, and he can’t dance, and he don’t talk, and he won’t play cards--but he’s _such_ a mimic!! To-morrow he’ll imitate you and Aunt Betsy in a way that’ll make all the fellows _roar_!!!”] * * * * * [Illustration: A DRAMA OF THE DRAWING-ROOM [_See p. 85_] A DRAMA OF THE DRAWING-ROOM.--By means of his face and attitude, Jones flatters himself he can express the deepest interest in the conversation of a _bore_, while in reality his attention is fixed on what is going on in some other part of the room. Just at present, old Mrs. Marrable is relating to Jones the harrowing details of her late lamented’s last illness--while Captain Spinks is popping the question to Clara Willoughby behind one of Chopin’s Mazurkas--and Jones has no doubt but that his face and attitude are all Mrs. M. could wish. * * * * * LONDON IDYLLS.--_Algernon_ (_the heir_). “Awfully kind of Mrs. Masham to give us a lift. But it was rather a squeeze, eh?” _Jack the Detrimental_ (_his younger brother_). “Yes. By the way, talking of squeezes, it struck me very forcibly, driving along, that you’d got hold of one of Miss Laura Masham’s hands!” _Algernon._ “Well, you meddling young idiot! what if I _had_?” _Jack._ “Oh, nothing. Only _I’d got hold of the other_, you know!” * * * * * [Illustration: THE RISING GENERATION _Host._ “What a smart set of people we’ve got to-night, deary!”