I imagine _The Basker_ to be designed by "CLIFFORD MILLS" as a Tract against Dukes. And certainly her _Duke of Cheviot_ is a miracle of obtuseness, who, if he had not been made a hero by his valet (an original and happy creation), would have grievously belied the proud old family motto, "_Je me sauvegarde_." _George de Lacorfe_, fashionable, _faineant_ and forty, reader of _The Pink 'Un_, ardent bachelor, _Basker_ in short, suddenly finds the dukedom of Cheviot thrust upon him. Quite unlike his egregious ancestors, who went out and biffed their enemies in the gate, especially the _Gorndykes_, who were an unpleasant shifty kind of raiders, _George_ proposes to resign all the Cheviot places, emoluments and responsibilities to his cousin and heir, _Richard de Lacorfe_, on the day the said _Richard_ shall marry. Now _Richard_ is a _de Lacorfe_ with the hereditary _Gorndyke_ blood and nose acquired on the distaff side. This conspicuous organ inflames the anger of _George's_ grandmother, the dowager, steeped as she is in the history and prejudices of the family, while other members of the august circle harbour unkind thoughts about their kinsman. And well they might. If anyone had "wrong 'un" written all over him it was _Richard_. Indeed his Roman nose was the straightest part of him. The guileless _George_ who, though (or because) his grandmother presented him every birthday after his majority with a copy of _The History of the de Lacorfes_, knew and cared nothing about their glorious and stormy past, didn't suspect the _Gorndyke_ rat in the _de Lacorfe_ granary. Spendthrift _Richard_, who is always getting urgent blue envelopes from _Samuel & Samuel_, is bent on marrying for money the very _Diana_ that _George_ loves for her blue hyacinth eyes. There is a misunderstanding between _George_ and _Diana_ (of such a childlike ingenuousness as to suggest that really this too easy spot-stroke should be barred to playwrights), and the idiotic girl promptly engages herself to _Richard_, who is of course in love with a patently naughty married woman. The most reckless of lovers from the moment when in his ardour he (apparently) bites this lady's hand in the First Act, in full view of the family, till he plans a flirtation by the Cheviot postern gate on the very eve of his marriage to _Diana_, he is an obviously doomed villain. The lady is surprised by _George_ in the act of knocking thrice on the said postern within. When three knocks are heard without together with the voice of _Richard_, the _Duke_ really begins to suspect something. Virtuous imbecility prevails over villainous stupidity. The final blow is dealt upon the _Gorndyke_ nose. _Diana_ is retrieved by this last of the safe-guarders, and we are left to a melancholy calculation as to what the mental capacity of their issue is likely to be. [Illustration: THE SOUL'S AWAKENING.