[Illustration: "WELL, CALL IT A LET."]

* * * * *

[Illustration: THE NEW RIVER "BELLE."

_Society Gossip Note._ "I also saw the Honourable Pamela Puntah, attended
by a gorgeous creation in tangerine orange and cornflower blue, with hat
and handkerchief to match."

[It was remarked that at Henley the men's river attire quite outshone the
ladies'.]]

* * * * *

WORD CHAINS.

Sheila Davies and her brother had cycled over to play tennis. They sat,
with John and myself, on the steps and watched the rain falling.

"As a matter of general interest," said Arthur Davies to me, "when a man
invites his friends and neighbours over to play tennis and it pours with
rain all the time, what is the correct thing for him to do?"

"As a matter of general interest," I answered, "the good host will send the
ladies to play the piano, if any, and to talk scandal, whether there is any
or not. He will himself conduct the men of the party to the billiard-room
or the smoking-room and offer them cigarettes and whisky--if any."

"Ah," said Davies, "then it isn't usual just to keep them sitting miserably