n David admits that."

"I never thought much of your husband's taste," I said brutally, and
then, "in men," I added gently, as she was recovering from influenza.

She smiled again and continued:

"There is one thing that is indispensable to a successful week-end."

"It can't be Bobby Outram," I declared.

"It is, or somebody like him; but he is easily the best. Bobbie is my
point of contact."

"He used often to be my boot's," I growled.

"The more you can fuse your guests the better," she went on, as if she
were giving a lecture. "Everyone knows that; it's the A B C of
entertaining; but they must have something to agree about--a sort of
rallying point. And I was the first hostess to discover that no party is
complete unless you have someone in it whom all the others can most
cordially abuse."

"So that is Bobbie's _metier_?" I said.

"The help that man has been to me on wet Sundays is beyond belief," she
replied ecstatically; "and Brenda Thornton is absolutely furious."

"I never expected to be sorry for Outram, but----"

"My dear Jack, you needn't worry about Bobbie. He knows all right. I
told him, and he enjoys it. He's really rather a dear."

But at this my gorge rose. "At any rate," I said, "he's going to Mrs.
Thornton's from next Friday to Tuesday; he told me so yesterday."

"The little worm," said Sheila.

"'Worm' is the word," I said; and as we remained to abuse Bobbie for
another ten minutes with much mutual goodwill I suppose he had once more
justified his existence by a successful feat of "fusing."

* * * * *

[Illustration: "Yes, that's the sort of man they would give work to--A
man wiv no principles! Why, only last week 'e was 'ad up for beating 'is
wife, and now _'E'S WORKIN' ON A CHURCH_!"]

* * * * *

AT THE PLAY.

"The Clever Ones."

I do wish I had been one of the clever ones, for they seemed to be in
Mr. Sutro's confidence and able to penetrate the obscurity of his
motives. At first even I could understand something of the scheme, which
ran (as I thought) like this:--_Wilfrid Callender_, a rich bachelor of
Harrow and Oxford, has a socialist friend, _David Effick_, at whose
meetings he happens to have encountered a Girton girl, _Doris Marrable_
(pretty daughter of a hop-merchant in affluent circumstances), who
affects revolutionary ideals. In order to win the approval of this lady
he represents himself as an anarchist