notice. Anything that is worth knowing one practically
teaches oneself, and the rest obtrudes itself sooner or
later. The reason one's elders know so comparatively little
is because they have to unlearn so much that they acquired by
way of education before we were born. Of course I'm a
believer in Nature-study; as I said to Lady Beauwhistle, if
you want a lesson in elaborate artificiality, just watch the
studied unconcern of a Persian cat entering a crowded salon,
and then go and practise it for a fortnight. The
Beauwhistles weren't born in the Purple, you know, but
they're getting there on the instalment system--so much down,
and the rest when you feel like it. They have kind hearts,
and they never forget birthdays. I forget what he was,
something in the City, where the patriotism comes from; and
she--oh, well, her frocks are built in Paris, but she wears
them with a strong English accent. So public-spirited of
her. I think she must have been very strictly brought up,
she's so desperately anxious to do the wrong thing correctly.
Not that it really matters nowadays, as I told her: I know
some perfectly virtuous people who are received everywhere.



REGINALD ON HOUSE-PARTIES



The drawback is, one never really KNOWS one's hosts and
hostesses. One gets to know their fox-terriers and their
chrysanthemums, and whether the story about the go-cart can