_Curph. (to himself)._ Could I break it to her gently, I wonder. (_Aloud._) Never--my professional duties make that impossible. _Charles (to himself)._ I knew he was a muff! (_Aloud._) I should have thought you could easily get a pass to any place you wanted to go--in your profession. _Curph. (to himself)._ He suspects something. (_Aloud._) Should you? Why? _Charles._ Oh, as you're on a newspaper, you know. Don't they always have a free pass for everywhere? _Curph._ If they have, I have never had occasion to make use of it. _Charles._ Well, of course you may turn up your nose at music-halls, and say they're not intellectual enough for you. _Curph._ Pardon me, I never said I turned up my nose at them, though you'll admit they don't profess to make a strong appeal to the intellect. _Charles._ If they did, you wouldn't catch _me_ there. But I can tell you, it's not so bad as you seem to think; every now and then they get hold of a really good thing. You might do worse than drop into the El. or the Val., the Valhalla, you know, some evening--just to hear WALTER WILDFIRE. _Curph._ Much obliged; but I can't imagine myself going there for such a purpose. _Mrs. T._ CHARLES, if you suppose Mr. CURPHEW would allow himself to be corrupted by a boy like you---- _Charles._ But look here, Aunt. WALTER WILDFIRE'S all right--he is _really_; he was a gentleman, and all that, before he took to this sort of thing, and he writes all his own songs--and ripping they are, too! His line is the Broken-down Plunger, you know. (Mrs. T. _repudiates any knowledge of this type_.) He's got one song about a Hansom Cabby who has to drive the girl he was engaged to before he was broke, and she's married some other fellow since, and has got her little daughter with her, and the child gives him his fare, and--well, somehow it makes you feel choky when he sings it. Even Mr. CURPHEW couldn't find anything to complain of in WALTER WILDFIRE! _Althea (who has entered during this speech)._ Mamma, I can't find your spectacles anywhere. Mr. CURPHEW, who is this WALTER WILDFIRE CHARLES is so enthusiastic about? _Mrs. T. (hastily)._ No one that Mr. CURPHEW knows anything of--and certainly not a fit person to be mentioned in _your_ hearing, my dear, so let us say no more about it. Supper must be on the table by this time; we had better go in, and try to find a more befitting topic for conversation. CHARLES, have the goodness to put this--this _disgraceful_ paper in your pocket, and let me see no more of it. I shall get your Uncle to speak to you seriously after supper. _Mr. T. (aloud, with alacrity)._ Yes, my love, I shall certainly speak to CHARLES after supper--very seriously. (_To himself._) And end this awful uncertainty! _Curph. (to himself, as he follows to the Dining-room)._ "Not a fit person to be mentioned in her hearing!" I wonder. Would _she_ say the same if she knew? When shall I be able to tell her? It would be madness as yet.