“READY! AYE READY!”
“Ready! Aye Ready!”—Mrs. Ponsonby de Tomkyns. “That lady was evidently intended by nature for a Chinese, Sir Charles! I wonder who she can be?”
Sir Charles. “She happens to be my sister, Lady Plantagenet de la Zouche. May I ask why you think nature intended her for a Chinese?”
Mrs. P. de T. (equal, as usual, to the emergency). “She struck me as having such exquisitely small feet!”
Dreadful State of Affairs at Market Harborough.—Lord Charles Highflyer (despondently). “There’s too much frost to hunt, and not enough ice to skate; all the horses are coughing; the gov’nor writes to say that he’s going to endow a new church; Bingo wires that all seats are booked for a fortnight at any theatre worth going to; Fanny Canterly is engaged to that ass Blinkers; I’ve a bill overdue on Tuesday; Hummingbirdie Belleville threatens an action for breach of promise; Aunt Genista hasn’t weighed in as usual; and some idiot has sent me a card with a robin on it, wishing me ‘All the Compliments of the Season!’”