MORE DILLYDALLYING.

"Arbitration is to be adopted first in disputes
between members of the League, then meditation by the
Council."--_Liverpool Paper_.

* * * * *

THE TREACHEROUS SON.

I certainly hoped when I took up my quarters in this quiet village
that there would be no jarring note to disturb the idyllic peace of
my surroundings. And yet I had not been long in this pleasant
sitting-room, with its outlook on blossom-laden fruit-trees,
creamy-spired chestnuts and wooded down, before I became aware that a
pitiful and rather sordid little domestic drama was in progress within
fifty yards from my open windows. I discovered a son in the act of
encouraging his aged and apparently imbecile parent to gamble with
a professional swindler! Not that I have actually seen them thus
engaged. As a matter of fact I have merely heard a few short
remarks--and those were all spoken by the son. But, as everyone knows,
even a single sentence accidentally overheard by an observant stranger
may give him a clearer insight into the unknown, and possibly unseen,
speaker's character than could be gained from countless chapters of a
modern analytical novel.

So these four sentences were quite enough for _me_. Perhaps I should
mention here that the three personages in this drama are birds--which
makes it all the more painful.