THE DERSINGHAMS AT HOME 133

anybody else who cared to listen. "When we were out
in Singapore, my husband was always going over to the
club for billiards. And now he hardly ever plays. I
don't think he's had a game this year. Have you, Walter?
I'm just saying I don't think you've had a game this
year/'

"And so what with one thing and another/' Mrs.
Dersingham told Major Trape, "I've simply not been
able to see half the plays I've wanted to see. Something
has to go, hasn't it? We were out at the Trevors—I think
you know them, don't you?—the shipbuilding people,
you know, only of course these Trevors are out of that—
they're terribly in with all that young smart set, Mrs.
Dellingham, young Mostyn-Price, Lady Muriel Pag-
worth, and the famous Ditchways. Well, what with
that, and then going to Mrs, Westbury's musical tea-
fight—Dossevitch and Rougeot ought to have been there
and were only prevented from coming at the last minute,
but Imogen Farley was there and played divinely. Oh,
and then on top of all that, I went to see that new thing
at His Majesty's—what's it called?—oh, yes—The Other
Man. And so I haven't had a single moment for any
other show."

"No, by Jove, you haven't, have you?" said Major
Trape, with whom this miracle of the social loaves and
fishes worked every time. "You're worse than Dorothy,
and I tell her she overdoes it. Mustn't overdo it, you
know."

Mrs. Dersingham, wondering how long Agnes was
going to be bringing up the cutlets, shrugged her
shoulders, and did it exactly as she had seen Irene Prince
do it in Smart Women at the ambassadors. "It is stupid,
1 know," she confessed charmingly, "and I'm always