s at any moment, ready to misunderstand everything
anybody does or says, a perpetual bugbear; and not even the emotional
repentances, which are often the only partially saving grace of
bad-tempered people, can atone for the atmosphere of disturbance which
they always inflict. And the man or woman who loses his temper
whenever anything goes in the slightest bit wrong--well, from them may
the Lord deliver me for ever, Amen! They carry their ill-nature about
with them all day and under all circumstances. Sometimes they seem to
imagine that their spirit of disagreeableness is a sign of the
super-man, or of that dominating personality of which Caesar and
Napoleon are historical examples. They frequent restaurants and harry
the already over-harried waiters. It is such a very easy victory--the
victory over a paid servant. But the conquerors stamp themselves for
ever and for ever among Nature's "cads" nevertheless. Anybody who is
rude enough can give a quelling performance of "God Almighty" before
menials. Some people delight to do so, apparently. They possess
everything except an instinctive respect for a man and woman, however
lowly, who are earning their own living. And the lack of it places
them among the inglorious army of the "bounders" for all time. When
there is no "inferior" upon whom to vent the outbursts of their own
supreme egoism, they find their wives extremely useful. In the days
when the divorce laws are "sensible," freedom will be granted for
perpetual bad temper sooner than for occasional unfaithfulness.

Of course, we all have our days when we are like nothing so much as
gunpowder looking for a match. We can't be perfect and serene all the
time. And if ever, as I have just hinted, we do wake up in the morning
feeling as if we could get up and quarrel with a bee because it buzzes,
a Beecham pill will probably soon put us in a regular "click" of a
humour. ("Mr. Carter" never offered me anything; nor did Sir Thomas
Beecham. But being fond of grand opera, I mention the pills "worth a
guinea a box" for preference. Besides, they tell us a "Beecham at
night makes you sing with delight!" So there!) That is one of the
reasons why I always advocate a "silence room" in every household which
otherwise is large enough to put the biggest room aside to play
billiards in. I would have it quite small, and decorated in restful,
neutral tints, with the finest view from the window thereof that the
house could