_Taxi-Driver_. "ORL RIGHT--ORL RIGHT! YOU'RE LUCKY TO GET A CAB AT ALL
INSTEAD OF GRUMBLIN' ABAHT WHERE YER WANTS TER GO TO!"]

* * * * *

THE NEW MRS. MARKHAM.

CONVERSATION ON CHAPTER LX.

_Mary._ I wish, Mamma, that there were not so many shocking stories in
history.

_Mrs. M._ History is, indeed, a sad catalogue of human miseries, and
one is glad to turn aside from the horrors of war to the amenities of
private life. Shall I tell you something of the domestic habits of the
English in the early twentieth century?

_Mary._ Oh do, Mamma; I shall like that very much.

_Mrs. M._ The nobility and the well-to-do classes no longer lived
shut up in gloomy castles, but made a point of spending most of their
time in public. They never took their meals at home, but habitually
frequented large buildings called restaurants, fitted up with
sumptuous and semi-Sultanic splendour. In these halls, while the
guests sat at a number of tables, they were entertained by minstrels
and singers. It was even said that they acquired the habit of eating
and drinking in time to the music. They were waited upon for the
most part by foreigners, who spoke broken English, and what with the
babel of tongues, the din of the music and the constant popping of