I don't _want_ him to go abroad... When any one in his position seeks his fortune in a foreign country, there is always a tendency among some people to ask what he has _done_, to treat him as a remittance-man ... which is offensive without being particularly amusing... I have lost the thread... Ah, yes! My little party. One thing I noticed on returning to England was the extraordinary mixture of people that one met everywhere. For this, though I am personally fond of her, I blame Connie Maitland more than any dozen other women. Not being a _persona grata_ in certain circles to which she would dearly like to have the _entrée_, she seems to cultivate numbers for their own sake. When the princess... More by a hint, you understand, than by any direct criticism... But she cannot help seeing that the old barriers _have_ been broken down... It is always on the tip of my tongue to make my Lady Maitland wholly responsible. During the war one was _flung_ against these people, as it were: the strangest generals who seemed to have been stock-brokers the moment before... All that sort of thing... "Captains of Industry" (I believe they are called) with the queerest accents and all holding high office. There was an _epidemic_ of cabinet rank; and, if one had business in Whitehall, one met the oddest people--never the same two days running. Connie Maitland _thoroughly_ enjoyed herself, I always felt; so many new people to know before any one else. (I am not ashamed to confess that it is _not_ my ambition simply to know new people.) When I returned from Menton, I did drop a little hint and suggest that, as the war was now over, she ought to revise some of her war friendships. Quite kindly and gradually, you understand; I know that with some of the really estimable women who sat on committees with me... "_Is_ it true kindness?," I asked myself. "They lead their lives, you lead yours; the war brought you together, but you've _nothing_ else in common..." After that breath of fresh air at Menton, I was honestly truly aghast to find what London had become without one's noticing it. I sought an opportunity of speaking to the princess about it: I felt some one ought to make a little stand. _I_ don't count, because I'm not in a position to entertain; but I did resolve to confine my little party _simply_ to the old friends...