gens comme il faut._

PICNIC NO. 1.

The servants were employed in putting away dishes into hampers.

There was a calm silence. "Hem!" observed Sir Henry Talbot.

"Eh?" replied the Honorable Tom Hitherington.

"Mamma," said Miss Vere, "have you brought any work?"

"No, my dear."

"At a picnic," said Mr. Hitherington, "isn't it the thing for
somebody--aw--to do something?"

"Ipsden," said Lady Barbara, "there is an understanding _between_ you
and Mr. Hitherington. I condemn you to turn him into English."

"Yes, Lady Barbara; I'll tell you, he means---do you mean anything,
Tom?"

_Hitherington._ "Can't anybody guess what I mean?"

_Lady Barbara._ "Guess first yourself, you can't be suspected of being
in the secret."

_Hither._ "What I mean is, that people sing a song, or run races, or
preach a sermon, or do something funny at a picnic--aw--somebody gets up
and does something."

_Lady Bar._ "Then perhaps Miss Vere, whose singing is famous, will have
the complaisance to sing to us."

_Miss Vere._ "I should be happy, Lady Barbara, but I have not brought my
music."

_Lady Bar._ "Oh, we are not critical; the simplest air, or even a
fragment of melody; the sea and the sky will be a better accompaniment
than Broadwood ever made."

_Miss V._ "I can't sing a note without book."

_Sir H. Talbot._ "Your music is in your soul--not at your fingers'
ends."

_Lord Ipsden, to Lady Bar._ "It is in her book, and not in her soul."

_Lady Bar., to Lord Ips._ "Then it has chosen the better situation of
the two."

_Ips._ "Miss Vere is to the fine art of music what the engrossers are
to the black art of law; it all filters through them without leaving any
sediment; and so the music of the day passes through Miss Vere's mind,
but none remains--to stain its virgin snow."

He bows, she smiles.

_Lady Bar., to herself._ "Insolent. And the little dunce thinks he is
complimenting her."

_Ips._ "Perhaps Talbot will come to our rescue--he is a fiddler."

_Tal._ "An amateur of the violin."

_Ips._ "It is all the same thing."

_Lady Bar._ "I wish it may prove so."

[Note: original has music notation here]

_Miss V._ "Beautiful."

_Mrs. Vere._ "Charming."

_Hither._ "Superb!"

_Ips._ "You are aware that good music is a thing to be wedded to
immortal verse, shall I recite a bit of poetry to match Talbot's
strain?"

_Miss V._ "Oh, yes! how nice."

_Ips. (rhetorically)._ "A. B. C. D. E. F. G. H. I. J. K. L. M.