When that inveterate cynic, _Anthony Clifton_, made a will (it is not Mr. MILNE'S fault that, since he wrote his play before going out to the Front, we have had two others turning on eccentric bequests) leaving L50,000 each to two perfect strangers on the condition that they adopted the preposterous name of Wurzel-Flummery, he hoped to have the grim satisfaction of witnessing, from the grave, an exhibition of human weakness. Of the two legatees--politicians on opposite sides of the House--_Crawshaw_, whose whiskers gave him the air of a successful grocer of the mid-Victorian period, found reasons sufficiently convincing to himself for accepting the testator's terms; while _Richard Meriton_, who had little besides his salary as an M.P., took the high line of proper pride and declared his determination to refuse. Mr. MILNE, by the way, did not specify the respective politics of these two, but I judge, from my knowledge of his own, that _Crawshaw_ was meant to be a Tory and _Meriton_ a Liberal. The latter eventually succumbed to pressure on the part of _Crawshaw's_ daughter, who cared nothing for names so long as she could marry the man of her choice--a prospect denied to her by her father, who thought little of poor men. Meanwhile _Meriton's_ lofty attitude of general contempt for money, and particular contempt for it when offered on degrading terms, gave scope for a little serious relief. [Illustration: THE POLITICIAN AT HOME. _Robert Crawshaw, M.P_ ... MR. NIGEL PLAYFAIR. _Mrs. Crawshaw_ ... MISS HELEN HAYE.] There are, of course, more ways of viewing the question than could be compressed into so short a play. Myself, I confess to a sneaking sympathy with the standpoint of _Crawshaw_. Money for him did not mean mere self-indulgence; it meant outward show--a house in a better neighbourhood, a more expensive car, a higher status in the opinion of his world--all the things that somehow help in what is called a career. By accepting the fifty thousand pounds he would gain something in the public eye; by assuming the name of Wurzel-Flummery he would lose something. He weighed the two against one another, and concluded that he would gain more than he would lose. This argument furnished a good enough motive according to his lights.