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 *pin'. I say, Mater, if you have some free afternoon, Saturday or Wednesday, I should like you and Adela to come and hear her sing it, awfully."

"And Sir Henry Wood conducted so admirably, didn't he, Adela dear?"

"I suppose he is a good conductor," said Adela. "But music is so tiresome unless one happens to be musical, and even then one is likely to be bored."

"Ought to have come to Cinderella," said Mr. Philip. "Enjoyed it awfully, I'm sure. An absolute nailer. I mean to go again."

Even with a weight-for-age allowance for the tact, the charm, and the urbanity of one of London's leading Constitutional hostesses, it would be idle to speak of the evening as a great success. The good old Mater did all that a brave woman and a devoted mother could have done in the circumstances, but such was the atmospheric pressure that at last she was obliged to ask the butler whether anything had gone wrong with the ventilator of the new fire grate, which she had always viewed with suspicion from the moment it had been put in.

In the withdrawing-room the frost grew worse.

"I must really have my cloak," said the mother of the heir.

Vain to stir the fire; nought could uncongeal the atmosphere. No, it was not one of your successes, Mater; no use pretending, is it? Better face the facts, but