"How can I thank you enough," began Mrs. Bathurst, "for being so kind and generous about our little angel? My husband and I agreed that nothing more charmingly considerate can ever have been done." At this point Mrs. Friend followed her husband into the room, and Mrs. Bathurst renewed her expressions of gratitude. "But at any rate," she added to her, "you will permit me to defray the cost of the advertisement? I could not allow you to be at that expense." Before Mrs. Friend could speak her husband intervened. "No, madam," he said, "I couldn't think of it. Please don't let the mention of money vulgarize a little friendly act like this. We are only too glad to have been the means of reuniting you and your pet." E.V.L. * * * * * "Rufford Abbey is, of course, a wonderful old place, and all the front, from gable to gable, is genuine tenth-century, built in 1139." _Sunday Times._ It looks as if the ca' canny idea was not so new as we thought it. * * * * * [Illustration: _Lady with Pram_ (_who has been pointing out to newcomer the beauties of the neighbourhood, where a strike is threatened_). "THAT'S ONE OF THE 'OT 'EADS."] * * * * * AT THE PLAY. "EVERY WOMAN'S PRIVILEGE." When _Dahlia_ refused the hand of a wealthy middle-aged nut, with faultless knickerbockers and a gift for lucubrated epigrams, preferring to throw in her lot (platonically) with a young and penniless social reformer, we took no notice of those who feared a scandal ("scandals are not what they were," as she said), nor of the girl's assertion that she had no use for the alleged romance of marriage. We were confident that the little god whose image, with bow and arrow, stood in the garden of _Dahlia's_ ancestral home, would put things right for us in the end. Yet we were not greatly annoyed when he made a mess of his business and married her to the wrong man; for in the meantime such strange things had been allowed to occur and the right man had proved such a disappointment that we didn't much care what happened to anybody. It was the rejected lover, _Mortimer Jerrold_, who conceived two bright ideas for conquering her independence of mind, apparently for the benefit of his rival. First he contrived to get _Harold Glaive_, the young socialist, selected as a candidate for Parliament, hoping (if I read the gentleman's motive rightly) that his probable failure would touch the place where her heart should have been. This scheme did not go very well, for he was chosen to contest the seat held by _Dahlia's_ own father (which caused a lot of trouble), and in the result beat him.