"American, is he not?" he said. "Ver reech, ze Americans." This saddened me a little. He was not then absolutely complete. There was a faint tarnish on the lustre of his innocence. He was scarcely perhaps suited for the League of Nations after all. Lighting an Albanian cigarette I asked him for my bill. * * * * * THINKING ALOUD. LORD HALDANE _loquitur_. "Tired of laborious days and nights Spent on the intellectual heights, I long to raise and educate The masters of the future State. Besides, the people in the plains Are lamentably short of brains, And I have even more than KEYNES. Already in _The Herald's_ page Am I acclaimed as seer and sage; Mine be it then to teach my neighbour To quit the lowly rut of Labour, And scale the heights of Pisgah, Nebo, Or some equivalent gazebo, For even Labour must afford To keep one competent Law Lord." * * * * * "WAR CRIMINALS DEMAND TO BE SUSPENDED."--_Evening Paper._ Too good to be true. * * * * * [Illustration: MANNERS AND MODES. A YOUNG GIRL HAS THE TEMERITY TO BRING A CHAPERON TO A DANCE.] * * * * * [Illustration: BEHIND THE SCENES IN CINEMA-LAND. "THIS IS WHERE HE SWIMS THE RAPIDS. HOW SHALL WE SEND HIM--UP OR DOWN?"] * * * * * COX AND BOX. MY DEAR CHARLES,--Let us talk _Haute Finance_. In other words, let us indulge in that good old Anglo-Saxon pastime of blackguarding COX AND CO. It will remind us of the piping days of war. There is too much peace about, and the gentle and ever-forgiving COX AND CO. expect their customers to be men of force and character, showing temper from time to time. Everybody else may be demobilised; I remain a soldier, and as such I have my special bank. Ah, me! the battles in Charing Cross are not the easy things they used to be. No longer, as of old, I come fresh to the attack against a mere underling, worn down by the assaults of wave after wave of brother-officers attacking, before me. I enter the Territorial Department alone and am taken on by a master-hand, supported and flanked by a number of unoccupied subordinates. About the Spring of 1925, when I expect to be the only "T" left, I anticipate the decisive moment when I shall cross swords or swop bombs with Sir COX himself. Having bravely encountered "AND CO." these many years, I shall not be daunted by that gilded knight.