Personally I always affect a certain brand of leaf-covered invention known to the trade as cigarillos, but I obtained a supply of thin gold-tipped cigarettes from Reggie, who always keeps a selection of strange apparatus in his cigarette-case. As we climbed over a gate and sat down behind the nearest hedge Mrs. Lomond remarked, ‘Good boy, Reggie, I met him when I was out at Cannes for the Ladies golf matches; he did everything for me except sign my card.’ ‘He’s a born organizer,’ I said; ‘the anti-dons campaign that he arranged in Cecil’s prospered as no such enterprise has ever done before, and he doped the porter so successfully that the only name found on his black book next morning was that of an inoffensive Scholar who was visiting a sick aunt in Penzance.’ ‘I wish,’ she said, ‘that you and he would come up to town next week, and help me run our theatricals at the “Regality” in aid of the “Home for Helpless Hairdressers;” it’s bound to be a great success, the Duke is coming at half-time, and I’ll introduce you to some of the prettiest girls. If you like to wear an apron and carry a shaving brush in your hand you might even sell programmes,’ she added with the air of one who makes a great concession. ‘That’s all right for me,’ I put in, ‘but don’t you think that Reggie’s heart is full enough already, and yet stay,’ I added, ‘there is still room for a few more in bin twenty-three.’ ‘How much do you expect to clear,’ I asked her after a short pause. ‘O several thousand,’ she said cheerfully. ‘You see the Duchess of Dopingburgh is kissing all comers at half-a-crown a time, and Violet MacNeill is going to serve at the American bar. But I think we’d better be going back,’ she added, ‘if we don’t want to be left here for the night.’ As we regained the scene of the orgy, Freddy gathered up all the remaining cloths and thrust them into a small trunk, while Mr. Accrington sat upon it and tried to turn the lock without much success. ‘There they are,’ cried Blithers as we appeared, ‘now let’s be going.’ ‘What punt are you going in, Ophelia?’ Freddy enquired. ‘Oh, I’ll go in the most aggressive one,’ Miss Bugg replied with a pleasant smile, ‘I’m all for going fast.’ And so we embarked in a most amiable mood. The return journey was more or less uneventful, though my conversation with Violet MacNeill was quite the reverse. The unfortunate de Beresford who punted us down must have had a very poor time, for Blithers and Mrs. Lomond were much too busily engaged to pay any attention to him. As we proceeded up the Broad Walk Mrs. Accrington sidled up to me and enquired with evident anxiety, ‘How do you think Steve is getting on with his work? he writes us such cheering letters, but we saw Mr. Yelland to-day and he seemed most despondent.’ ‘O the Yelper is always a Job’s Comforter, Mrs. Accrington,’ I said, ‘besides poor old Stephen’s quite a model worker.’