_Mrs. Ard._ They're very nice done in the real shells. Or on scollops. We have silver--or rather--(_with a magnanimous impulse to tone down her splendour_), silver-plated ones. _Mrs. All._ How funny--so have we! (_Both women feel an increase of liking for one another._) I like them cooked in milk, too. [_The first barrier being satisfactorily passed, they proceed, as usual, to the subject of ailments._ _Mrs. Ard._ My doctor _does_ do me good, I must say--he never lets me get ill. He just sees your liver's all right, and then he feeds you up. _Mrs. All._ That's like _my_ doctor; he always tells me, if he didn't keep on constantly building me up, I should go all to pieces in no time. That's how I come to be here. I always run down at the end of every Season. _Mrs. Ard._ (_feeling that Mrs. ALLBUTT can't be "anybody very particular" after all_). What--to Margate? Fancy! Don't you find you get tired of it? I should. _Mrs. All._ (_with dignity_). I didn't say I always went to Margate. On the contrary I have never been here before, and shouldn't be here now, if my doctor hadn't told me it was my only chance. _Mrs. Ard._ (_reassured_). I only came down here on my little girl's account. One of those nasty croopy coughs, you know, and hoops with it. But she's almost well already. I will say it's a wonderful air. Still, the worst of Margate is, one isn't likely to meet a soul one knows! _Mrs. All._ Well, that's the charm of it--to me. One has enough of that during the Season. _Mrs. Ard._ (_recognising the superiority of this view_). Indeed one has. What a whirl it has been to be sure! [Illustration: "Dear, dear! _not_ a county family!"] _Mrs. All._ The Season? Why, I never remember one with so little doing. Most of the best houses closed--hardly a single really smart party--one or two weddings--and that's positively all! _Mrs. Ard._ (_slightly crushed, in spite of a conviction that--socially speaking--Balham has been rather more brilliant than usual this year._) Yes, that's very true. I suppose the Elections have put a stop to most things? _Mrs. All._ There never was much going on. _I_ should rather have said it was Marlborough House being shut up that made everything so dull from the first. _Mrs. Ard._ Ah, that _does_ make such a difference, doesn't it? (_She feels she must make an effort to recover lost ground._) I fully expected to be at Homburg this year. _Mrs. All._ Then you would have met Lady NEURALINE MENTHOL She _was_ ordered there, I happen to know. _Mrs. Ard._ Really, you don't say so? Lady NEURALINE! Well, that's the first _I've_ heard of it. (_It is also the first time she has heard of HER, but she trusts to be spared so humiliating an admission._) _Mrs. All._ It's a fact, I can assure you. You know her, perhaps?