All the applicants for the post of guardian were told to be at her family mansion at ten o’clock in the morning, and when they were assembled Philippa sent for them one by one and told each that he must recount to her some anecdote in which he had taken part with some person of inferior position—such as a bus-conductor or a taxi-driver or a railway porter or a waiter or a char. When they had all finished Philippa made her choice, which fell upon a candidate named Barclay Pole who was not so tall as the others and not so well dressed, although his references were beyond dispute. “But,” said her old nurse, who had been standing by her side all through the interviews, “why do you choose him when there are all those handsome ones at your disposal?” “Because,” Philippa said, “he was the only one who when he told the story did not make the other person call him Sir.” Barclay Pole thus became her guardian and carried out his duties with perfect success until it was time to give her hand in marriage to Captain Knightliville of the Guards. “HEARTEASE” PEOPLE WHO REALLY DESERVE THE O.B.E. II. THE POSTMAN When my brother was small he wanted to be a postman because he wanted to knock double knocks; but no one who is grown up would want it, because there is no fun in spending your life in delivering letters to other people, other people’s letters are so dull. Other people have such odd ways with their letters. Father even is cross when there is a letter for him and says “Confound the thing!—why can’t they leave me alone?” But my eldest sister waits for the postman and is miserable if he doesn’t bring her anything. Some people lay their letters by their plates and go on eating. This seems to me extraordinary. Some of our visitors who get letters say “Excuse me” before they read them, but others don’t. When I think of the postman going on for ever and ever taking letters to other people I am convinced that he ought to have the O.B.E. “ROSE” THE CINEMA One of the strange things to reflect about is what people did before the cinema was invented. My father was an old man before he ever saw a moving picture and when he was a boy there were none. He does not like them now because he says he always comes away with either a headache or a flea, but I like them excessively. I like the serious ones best, but my brother Jack wants the comic ones. He can walk like Charlie Chaplin. He likes Mutt and Jeff too. I know a girl who was photographed by a cinema man while she was at Church Parade in the Park and the next week she saw it at a Picture Palace and recognized herself.