tion de localite_. Else why
do people do things here which would badly shock us at home? _Par
exemple_, dancing between the courses of a meal is our latest
_caprice_ here; but I was _un peu etonnee_, the other evening, to
see the Duchess of Mintford, at a restaurant of the most _chic_,
jazzing off the effects of the turbot with light-hearted
_abandon_.

Unfortunately a waiter carrying a tray darted across the track
at the very moment when she was involved in that step so
_embrouillant_, the side-roll.

It took quite a long time to collect, and put in their proper
order, the waiter, the contents of the tray, her Grace and all the
other jazzers who were coming up behind.

But, _apres tout_, little comment was roused because most of the
onlookers thought the incident was just part of the dance.

So long, old thing.

_Bien a vous_,

ANNE.

* * * * *

THE TRUMP SUIT.

Those who wield Britannia's power
Have decreed a blissful hour,
When the mellow bugle-note
Sounds in every ship afloat,
And you see the forrard decks
Littered up with leathernecks,
Seamen sprawling on the hatches,
Darning socks and fitting patches,
Cleaning jumpers, sewing, smoking,
Writing, fighting, sleeping, joking,
Baiting foe and twitting friend--
Sailors call it "Make and Mend."

In this jolly throng each day
Gunner 'Erbert, R.M.A.,
Sat and smoked serenely bored,
So that I must needs record
When that precious hour was ended
He had neither made nor mended.

'Erbert was a crumpled rose
In the beds of N.C.O.'s,
And a blot on the escutcheon
Which they pride themselves so much on;
For, in spite of threat and curse,
Cells and badges lost, or worse,
Captain's frown or sergeants' oaths,
'Erbert _wouldn't_ mend his clothes.

In a distant Eastern land
Certain tribes got out of hand,
And, to comfort little Mary,
Sought to stew the missionary.
Our Marines were duly sent
To apportion chastisement,
And they snatched him from the larder,
But alas! pursuing harder
Than was wise in such a scrap,
They were landed in a trap.
For the wily natives got
All around and copped the lot,
Stripping off them every stitch
Of the clothes they stood in, which,
I am sure you'll all agree,
Was a great indignity.

Copped the lot? No, there was one
Absent when the deed