anticipations; but the butler promised copy, and she accepted an
invitation to tea in his kitchen. This scene furnished some very
excellent and natural fun, and there was really no need to introduce,
and exploit over and over again, the hallowed device of a trip-mat,
that last resort of the bankrupt farceur. The necessary complications
ensued with the unexpected arrival of the master (one of the
candidates for the lady's hand, I need not say), who makes sudden
demand for an early dinner, a thing impossible to execute with the
cook in a fit of hysterics induced by jealousy of the lady who had
supplanted her in the butler's perfidious affections.

In the third Act we return to _Mabel's_ flat and resume her interviews
with the applicants for her hand. This revival of the situation of the
First Act was a weakness in the construction. The original _fiancé_--a
wooden dummy set up for the purpose of being knocked down--is
dismissed, and _Captain Corkoran_, the bold explorer, is appointed to
the vacancy. He deserved his luck; but, if I wish him joy of it, I do
so without a pang of envy, for she was much too good at back-chat for
a quiet life, to say nothing of her taste in literature, which would
want a deal of correction.

Of course Miss GLADYS COOPER made her seem much more desirable
than she really was. (I speak of her personal charm and not of
her agreeable costumes, which are for the pens of more instructed
reviewers. I got nothing out of a lady near me, whom I recognised as
a dramatic critic by a question that her neighbour put to her. "Do you
know this frock," she asked, "or will you have to go behind?") Apart
from the delightful picture which Miss COOPER always presents she has
a most swift and delicate feeling for the details of her craft.
She has the confidence that avoids over-emphasis, and she does her