Part 16 (2/2)

But the cards have not only ae reticences

”Oh,” little Miss Banks will say, her eyes large with excitement, ”there's a payment of money and a dark oes on, ”whether you pay it to his,” you say, beconant ”Surely you can tell”

”No, I can't”

You begin to go over your dark acquaintances who ht owe you money, and can think of none

You then think of your dark acquaintances to whom you owe money and are horrified by their nu's rubbish, anyway”

Little Miss Banks's eyes dilate with pained astonishain

GENTLEMEN BOTH

Not all of us have the best manners always about us The fortunate are they whose reaction is instant; but those also are fortunate who, after the first failure--during the conflict between, say, natural and acquired feelings--can recapture their best, too

At a certain country house where a shooting party was asse-room It was a noticeable picture by reason of its beauty and also by reason of a gash in the canvas Coffee was on the table when one of the guests, looking round the walls, observed it for the first ti his host's attention to its excellence, asked as the painter; and the host, as an i the infor the justice of the criticis offer You see that cut across the paint in the ive any one a thousand pounds who can guess hoas done”

They all rose and clustered before the easel; for a thousand pounds are worth having a try for, even when one is rich--as most of them were

”It was done only last week,” the host continued, ”and it was such a queer business that I don't intend to have it repaired Now then, all of you, a thousand of the best for the correct answer”

He rubbed his hands and chuckled It was a sure thing for hiestions

The guests having re-examined the cut with ain, and pencils and paper were provided so that the various possible solutions an--no sound but pencils writing and the host chuckling

Now it happened that one of the party, a year or so before, had seen somewhere in Yorkshi+re a picture with a not dissimilar rent, caused, he had been told, by a panic-stricken bird which had blundered into the roo this, and re also that history sometimes repeats itself, he wrote on his piece of paper that, according to his guess, the canvas was torn by a bird which had flown into the roo been written down, the host called on their writers to read therew more jolly and more confident as one after another incorrect solution was tendered

And then came the turn of the man who had remembered about the bird, and who happened to be the last of all ”My guess is,” he read out, ”that the picture was daradually subsided when it was observed that the host was very far froood humour, but hite and tense