ms fainting into the distance, and at
last silence.

"Thank God they're gone, bless the little devils!" And Dad raised his
dry ginger in salutation; while Mumdear allowed me to get her a
port-and-lemonade. It had apparently been a stiff show.

"Funny, but ... if you notice it ... when one thing goes wrong
everything goes. First off, Arthur wasn't there to conduct. His leader
had to take first three turns, and he doesn't know us properly and kept
missing the cues for changes. See, we have about six changes in our
music, and when you kind of get used to doing a stunt to 'Mysterious
Rag,' it sort of puts you off if the band is still doing 'Nights of
Gladness.' See? Then the curtain stuck, and we was kept hanging about
for a minute, and had to speed up. Then one of our ropes give, and I
thought to myself: 'That's put the fair old khybosh on it, that has.'
Gave me--well, you know, put me a bit nervy, like. We missed twice.
Least, George says I missed, but I say he did. So one thing and another
it's been a bad night. However, we went all right, so here's doing it
again, sonny. Thumbs up!"

She beamed upon me a very large stage beam, as though she had got the
range of the gallery and meant to reach it. But it was sincere, and
though she makes three of me, she is a darling, very playful, very
motherly, very strong-minded. Indeed, a Woman. She fussed with the
feathers of her boa, and sat upright, as though conscious of her
athletic proportions and the picture she was making against the gilded
background of the saloon. She had an arm that--but I can say no more
than that paraphrase of Meredith: She Had An Arm. When you remember that
often four times nightly she holds her husband--no light-weight, I
assure you--balanced on her right, while, with her left, she juggles
with a bamboo-table and a walking-stick, you can realize that She Has
An Arm, and you can understand the figure she cuts in commonplace
intercourse. You are simply overwhelmed physically and morally.

"But look here, sonny, why not come home and have a bit of supper with
us? That is, if there is any. But come round, and gnaw the old
hambone--what? I think we got some claret and I know George's got a drop
of Three-Star. Young Beryl's off to-morrow on the Northern tour with the
White Bird Company, so of course we're in a devil of muddle. George's
sister's round there, packing her. But if you'll put up with the damned
old upset, why, come right along."

So we drank