le supper was being
prepared.

The preparation consisted merely of the entrance of one man after
another carrying silver dishes; for everything was cold, although
exceedingly sumptuous and solid. There were chickens all covered with a
beautiful thick whitewash, on which little hearts and stars cut out of
truffles were sprinkled. There was a tongue all over varnish, like the
dainty foot of a giant Cinderella. There were custards and tarts and
jellies. There were also bottles exactly like champagne bottles, which,
however, contained ginger ale, and for Mr. Lenox's young brother and
his friends there were silver tankards of beer. It was, in short, not a
supper, but, as Mary Rotheram expressed it, using her favourite
adjective at the moment, a supreme banquet.

Then another friend, with spectacles, called the Snarker, came in, and
they began. Mr. Lenox's young brother was a very attentive host, and
made everyone eat too much. Then he made a speech to propose the health
of the Slowcoaches, as he called them, and to wish them a prosperous
journey. "That you will all be happy," he said, very gravely, in
conclusion, "is our earnest wish. But the one thing which my friends
and I desire more than any other--and I assure you that they are with
me most cordially in this sentiment (aren't you, Fizzy? aren't you,
Shrimp? aren't you, Snarker?)--the one thing that we desire more than
any other is, that you may never be run in for exceeding the speed
limit." This was a very successful joke.

After supper came Fizzy's conjuring tricks, which were not very
bewildering to children who had once had a real conjurer from the
Stores, as these had, and then a charade played by Mary, Horace, Fizzy,
and Shrimp for the others to guess.

The first act represented a motorist (Fizzy) who ran over and killed an
old woman (Mary), and was arrested by a policeman (Horace), and fined
eighteenpence by a magistrate (Shrimp).

The second was a cockney scene in which two costers (Fizzy and Shrimp)
took their girls (Mary and Horace) to Hampstead Heath to 'ave fun.

The third was Henry VIII. (Shrimp) receiving Anne of Cleves (Fizzy) and
her Maid of Honour (Mary), and telling Wolsey (Horace) to prepare the
divorce, because she was a "great Flanders mare."

You see the whole word, of course--Car-'ave-Anne.

Finally the Snarker said that they must play one writing game before
they went home. The Snarker, it seemed, came from a family which was
devoted to