[Illustration: _Sergeant_. "Now, ME LAD, A SUIT OF MUFTI OR FORTY-FIVE
SHILLINGS?" _Tommy_. "OO, LUMME! I'LL PAY THE FINE."]

* * * * *

GALLERY PLAY.


It wasn't till Panmore noticed its absence on his return from France
that I remembered the little oil painting which I had left at the
Ferndale Gallery on sale or return, during the early days of the War,
when my financial outlook was bad.

Panmore said he had always wanted to buy it, but hadn't liked to ask
me if I would part with it. I assured him that excess even of delicacy
was a mistake and that I would try to get the picture back.

So I wrote to the Gallery thus:--

DEAR SIRS (it seemed absurd to write "Dear Gallery"),--In 1914 or
1915 I brought you a small oil painting, which you agreed to sell
or return to me. As I haven't heard from you since, I conclude
that there has been nothing doing in such pictures and I should
like to have it back. The picture is quite a small one, about the
size of an ordinary book, and so far as I recollect it portrays
a man looking at a horse, to see if its withers stand where they
did; or perhaps wondering whether he would sell it and buy a
scooter. As a matter of fact I never took particular notice of the
picture, not caring for it, but a friend of mine who knows it well