SCENE--_Under the Colonnade of the Hôtel Grande Bretagne,
Bellagio. CULCHARD is sitting by one of the pillars, engaged
in constructing a sonnet. On a neighbouring seat a group of
smart people are talking over their acquaintances, and near
them is another visitor, a Mr. CRAWLEY STRUTT, who is
watching his opportunity to strike into the conversation._

_Mrs. Hurlingham._ Well, she'll _be_ Lady CHESEPARE some day, when
anything happens to the old Earl. He was looking quite ghastly when we
were down at SKYMPINGS last. But they're frightfully badly off _now_,
poor dears! Lady DRIBLETT lets them have her house in Park Lane for
parties and that--but it's wonderful how they live at all!

[Illustration: "I don't know if you're acquainted with a paper called
the _Penny Patrician_?"]

_Colonel Sandown._ He looked pretty fit at the Rag the other day. Come
across the SENLACS anywhere? Thought Lady SENLAC was going abroad this
year.

_Mr. Crawley Strutt._ Hem--I saw it mentioned in the _Penny Patrician_
that her Ladyship had--

_Mrs. Hurl._ (_without taking the slightest notice of him_). She's
just been marryin' her daughter, you know--rather a good match, too.
Not what I call pretty,--smart-lookin', that's all. But then her
_sister_ wasn't pretty till she married.

_Col. Sand._ Nice family she married into! Met her father-in-law, old