Mr. CHARLES HAWTREY as _Trotter_ played with his old easy skill and seemed to take a more than usual interest in the play. He was supported (as they say) by a particularly brilliant cast, including Miss LOTTIE VENNE as the aunt, Mr. ERIC LEWIS as _Emily's_ father, Mr. FREDERICK KERR as _Sir Samuel_, Miss HELEN HAYE in the thankless part of _Julia_, and Mr. NIGEL PLAYFAIR as a self-effacing phantom of a lover. All were in great form; but, next to Miss GLADYS COOPER, whose natural charm and ingenuous _espieglerie_ were a perpetual delight, I offer my profoundest compliments to the short but extraordinarily clever performance of Mr. H. R. HIGNETT as _Trotter's_ man _Francis_. This is the day of stage valets, but he was an exceptional treasure. To a quiet taste for philosophy he added an infinite tact; and by the lies which he poured into the telephone to cover his master's breach of engagement to _Julia_ he moved _Emily_, herself a gifted artist, to admiration. The author, Mr. H. M. HARWOOD, must be congratulated on a farce that at its best was really excellent fun. And he may take it for flattery, if he likes, when I say that a good deal of his dialogue might be adapted into the French without offending our gallant Allies on the ground of a too insular squeamishness. O. S. * * * * * THE INDURATION. Think not, dear love, because my cheek With grief grows neither grey nor hollow, Because no pharmacist I seek In quest of arsenic to swallow, Because I do not wince and weep By day and night for cardiac pains, That my fond passion falls on sleep, Or, secondly, my worship wanes. For these are strenuous days of strife That steel the soul of every Briton; Sterner and stronger grows our life Till simple bards become hard-bitten; So when, each Thursday, I propose (As usual) to wed my fair, I frankly find her changeless "No's" Not half so poignant as they were. * * * * * From an almanack of appropriate quotations:-- "JANUARY 27. Thursday. _German Emperor born_, 1859. O welcome, pure-ey'd Faith, white-handed Hope, Thou hovering angel, girt with golden wings.--_Milton._" * * * * * "If men well up in years would cultivate a habit of breathing properly and always holding themselves erect when walking and sitting, we would find fewer elderly people bent double when we do."--_Daily Express._ Our gay contemporary has been caught bending on this occasion. * * * * * "He asked the Government not to muzzle the ox that laid golden eggs."--_The Daily Argosy (Demerara)._ It wasn't really an ox; it was a bull. * * * * * From a country retail chemist's appeal to the Local Tribunal for his son's exemption from Military Service: "I cannot dispense with him"--or, presumably, without him.