"At one of these dances at Yorick Castle Mrs. Mangold, afterwards
Lady Rootham, was staying with us. She was a very handsome woman,
with a wonderful complexion, so brilliant, indeed, that some sceptics
believed it to be artificial. A plot was accordingly hatched to
solve the problem, and during a set of Kitchen Lancers a syphon of
soda-water was cleverly squirted full in her face, but the colour
remained fast. Mrs. Mangold, I am sorry to say, failed to see the
point of the joke, and fled to her room, pursued as far as the
staircase by a score or more of cheering sportsmen."

THE ORDEAL OF LADY VERBENA SOPER.

"Mr. GOSCHEN, as he then was, was entertaining a large party to dinner
at Whitehall. He was at the time First Lord of the Admiralty, and an
awkward waiter upset an ice-pudding down the back of Lady Verbena
Soper, sister of Lady 'Loofah' Soper and daughter of the Earl of
Latherham, The poor lady cried out, 'I'm scalded!' but our host,
with great presence of mind, dashed out, returning with a bundle of
blankets and a can of hot water, which he promptly poured on to the
ice-pudding. The sufferer was then wrapped up in the blankets and
carried off to bed; The waiter was of course sacked on the spot, but
was saved from prosecution at the express request of his victim and
assisted to emigrate to America, where I believe he did well on an
orange farm in Florida."

* * * * *

IN A GOOD CAUSE.