are refreshingly free from
affectations and fads. In my opinion they both paint very good pictures.
I introduced them to Mrs. Ascher; but this, as I should have known if
I had stopped to think, was a mistake. Mrs. Ascher regards the Royal
Academy as the home of an artistic anti-Christ and Academicians as the
deadliest foes of art. Not even the suave courtesy of my two friends
saved them from the unpleasant experience of hearing the truth about
themselves. Mrs. Ascher was not, of course, bluntly rude to them, and
did not speak with offensive directness. She poked the truth at them
edgeways, the truth that is, as she saw it.

The church did not support me very well. I distinctly remember inviting
six bishops. Only one came and he was Irish. However, he wore silk
stockings and a violet coat of aggressively ecclesiastical cut, so he
looked quite as well as if he had had a seat in the House of Lords. I
introduced him to the eugenic pig breeder, but they did not seem to hit
it off together. After a few remarks, probably about the weather, they
separated. The eugenist is rather a shaggy man to look at. That may
have prejudiced the bishop against him. I imagine that most bishops feel
shagginess to be embarrassing.

Lady Kingscourt brought a large party, chiefly women in very splendid
attire. There were, I think, eight of them altogether, and they had only
one man with them, a subaltern in a Guards regiment. He slipped away
almost at once, telling me as he passed out, that he wanted to telephone
to a friend and that he would be back in a few minutes. I do not think
he came back at all. He probably went to his club. I do not know what
was said to him the next day by the ladies he deserted. I thanked Lady
Kingscourt for coming. I really think it was very good of her to come.
She had fair warning that Gorman was going to make a speech and she knew
that all Gorman's political friends, probably Gorman himself, regarded
her as an abandoned woman who played fast and loose with the morals of
military officers and undermined their naturally enthusiastic loyalty to
Liberal Governments. By way of acknowledgment of my quite sincere thanks
Lady Kingscourt squeezed my hand.

"I always make a point," she said, "of encouraging any movement for the
good of the masses. They are such deserving dear things, aren't they?"

It is impossible to guess at what Lady Kingscourt thought we were doing;
but her heart was warm and kind. If ever class hatr