Oysters, now, I'm _very_ fond of--_fried_, that is.

_Mrs. Ard._ They're very nice done in the real shells. Or on scollops.
We have silver--or rather--(_with a magnanimous impulse to tone down
her splendour_), silver-plated ones.

_Mrs. All._ How funny--so have we! (_Both women feel an increase of
liking for one another._) I like them cooked in milk, too.

[_The first barrier being satisfactorily passed, they proceed,
as usual, to the subject of ailments._

_Mrs. Ard._ My doctor _does_ do me good, I must say--he never lets me
get ill. He just sees your liver's all right, and then he feeds you
up.

_Mrs. All._ That's like _my_ doctor; he always tells me, if he didn't
keep on constantly building me up, I should go all to pieces in no
time. That's how I come to be here. I always run down at the end of
every Season.

_Mrs. Ard._ (_feeling that Mrs. ALLBUTT can't be "anybody very
particular" after all_). What--to Margate? Fancy! Don't you find you
get tired of it? I should.

_Mrs. All._ (_with dignity_). I didn't say I always went to Margate.
On the contrary I have never been here before, and shouldn't be here
now, if my doctor hadn't told me it was my only chance.

_Mrs. Ard._ (_reassured_). I only came down here on my little girl's