_Mother_. And I am afraid we shall miss our train.

_Father_. And the roads are _so_ bad!

_Grandfather_. Well, well, perhaps we had better go; but in my time we
all used to enjoy it _so_ much. (_Aside._) And perhaps, after all, the
red-hot poker business _is_ rather stale at the end of the Nineteenth
Century!

[_Exeunt the Party, plus five-sixths of the Audience._

* * * * *

VOCES POPULI.

A CHRISTMAS ROMP.

SCENE--_Mrs. CHIPPERFIELD's Drawing-room. It is after the
Christmas dinner, and the Gentlemen have not yet appeared.
Mrs. C. is laboriously attempting to be gracious to her
Brother's Fiancée, whose acquaintance she has made for the
first time, and with whom she is disappointed. Married Sisters
and Maiden Aunts confer in corners with a sleepy acidity._

_First Married Sister_ (_to Second_). I felt quite sorry for FRED,
to see him sitting there, looking--and no wonder--so ashamed of
himself--but I always will say, and I always _must_ say, CAROLINE,
that if you and ROBERT had been _firmer_ with him when he was younger,
he would never have turned out so badly! Now, there's my GEORGE--&c.,