come after us we may be remembered for qualities and
successes which we quite left out of the reckoning."

"It's not always safe to depend on the commemorative
tendencies of those who come after us. There may have been
disillusionments in the lives of the mediaeval saints, but
they would scarcely have been better pleased if they could
have foreseen that their names would be associated nowadays
chiefly with racehorses and the cheaper clarets. And now, if
you can tear yourself away from the salted almonds, we'll go
and have coffee under the palms that are so necessary for our
discomfort."



REGINALD ON BESETTING SINS
THE WOMAN WHO TOLD THE TRUTH



There was once (said Reginald) a woman who told the truth.
Not all at once, of course, but the habit grew upon her
gradually, like lichen on an apparently healthy tree. She
had no children--otherwise it might have been different. It
began with little things, for no particular reason except
that her life was a rather empty one, and it is so easy to
slip into the habit of telling the truth in little matters.
And then it became difficult to draw the line at more
important things, until at last she took to telling the truth
about her age; she said she was forty-two and five months--by