Business and they're all _gentlemen_ in the _Coffee_ Business, you
know!"

_Grigsby_ (who always suits himself to his company). "_Really_ now!
Why, that's more than can be said of the Army, the Navy, the
Church, the Bar, or even the _House of Lords_! I don't _wonder_ at
your being rather _exclusive_!" (_Punch's Almanac_, 1882).

"I see your servants wear cockades now, Miss Shoddson!"

"Yes, Pa's just become a member of the Army and Navy Stores."


When du Maurier confined himself to observing and to recording he never
failed for subjects. But we suppose as a concession to a section of the
public he felt a leaven of mere jokes was demanded from him every year.
The scene of his struggle to invent those "jokes" is one to be veiled.
It is safe to say that it is his distinction to have contributed at once
the best satire and the worst jokes that _Punch_ has ever published. A
black and white artist has told the writer that the _Art_-Editors of
papers look first at the joke. The drawing is accepted or rejected on
the joke. We can only be glad that this was not entirely the editorial
practice on _Punch_ in du Maurier's time. Perhaps the subjoined "joke"
of du Maurier's from _Punch_ is the worst in the world:

"I say, cousin Constance, I've found out why you always call your
Mamma 'Mater.'"

"Why, Guy?"