_Hostess._ “Yes. How I wish one of our dear girls would come and sit by us, and tell us who everybody is!”] * * * * * “AWFUL” TASTE IN 1875! SCENE--_A Ball Room. Edwin leads out Angelina as arranged earlier in the evening, to dance a promised “square.” They walk through the first figure. A pause._ _Edwin._ Been to the Academy, of course? _Angelina._ O yes. Been several times. So fond of Miss Thompson’s picture, you know. I like the group of the dying soldier and the boy laughing at having killed a Frenchman, awfully. So awfully clever, you know. _Edwin._ O awfully! The wounds are so awfully true to nature, you know. Do _we_ begin? _They walk through the second figure. A pause._ _Edwin._ Been to see Salvini? _Angelina._ Of course. Isn’t he awfully nice? I think he is perfectly charming in _Othello_. His face quite reminds me, in the Jealousy Scene, of dear Mr. Irving in the last Act of _The Bells_. His suicide at the end of the piece, you know, is really quite too awfully clever. Isn’t it? _Edwin._ You mean the throat-cutting affair, eh? When he falls on his back and dies quivering, eh? O yes, awfully clever. It’s our turn, I think. _They walk through the third figure. A pause._ _Edwin._ Read any novels lately? _Angelina._ Just read an awfully nice book, “The Law and the Lady.” One of the heroes is a monstrosity without legs, Miserrimus Dexter, don’t you know. Awfully clever. _Edwin._ O yes. Read the book myself. Clever notion, the idiotic man-woman, eh, wasn’t it? _Angelina._ O yes, awfully good. I think they are waiting for us. _They walk through the fourth figure. Promenade._ _Edwin._ Did you go to Stafford House to see the coffins? _Angelina._ O yes, we all went--Mamma, Papa, and the children, don’t you know. Met everybody there. Such an awful crush. _Edwin._ Like the coffins? _Angelina._ O so much. They looked awfully nice. So deliciously cool, don’t you know. _Edwin._ Cool! You like that kind of thing cool, eh? _Angelina._ Yes, I think so. _Edwin._ Ah, then you must be against cremation? _Angelina_ (_hesitating_). Well--yes--perhaps. (_After consideration._) Yes, I think so. Yes, I think I like the baskets best. [_Fans herself._ _Edwin._ _À propos_--may I get you an ice? _Angelina._ O, thanks so much. Yes, Grandpapa was awfully delighted with the wicker coffins, and has ordered a couple lined with charcoal, for himself and Grandmamma. I am going to the shop to-morrow to choose them for him. Thanks--strawberry, please. [_They retire into the Refreshment-room, with a view to getting cool._ * * * * * “NOBLESSE OBLIGE.”--_Old Friend._ “Hullo, Dick? How are you? I wish you’d come and dine with me to-night. But now you’re a lord, I suppose I mustn’t call you Dick any longer, or even ask you to dinner?”