REGINALD AT THE CARLTON



"A most variable climate," said the Duchess; "and how
unfortunate that we should have had that very cold weather at
a time when coal was so dear! So distressing for the poor."

"Someone has observed that Providence is always on the side
of the big dividends," remarked Reginald.

The Duchess ate an anchovy in a shocked manner; she was
sufficiently old-fashioned to dislike irreverence towards
dividends.

Reginald had left the selection of a feeding-ground to her
womanly intuition, but he chose the wine himself, knowing
that womanly intuition stops short at claret. A woman will
cheerfully choose husbands for her less attractive friends,
or take sides in a political controversy without the least
knowledge of the issues involved--but no woman ever
cheerfully chose a claret.

"Hors d'oeuvres have always a pathetic interest for me," said
Reginald: "they remind me of one's childhood that one goes
through, wondering what the next course is going to be like--
and during the rest of the menu one wishes one had eaten more
of the hors d'oeuvres. Don't you love watching the different
ways people have of entering a restaurant? There is the
woman who races in as though her whole scheme of life were