Lord Selsey often said he disapproved of the ordinary subdivisions of a
house, and, especially as he lived alone, he did not see why one should
breakfast in a breakfast-room, dine in a dining-room, draw in a
drawing-room, and so on. Nevertheless, he had one special room for
music. There was a little platform at the end of it, and no curtains or
draperies of any kind to obscure or stifle sound. A frieze of Greek
figures playing various instruments ran round the walls, which were
perfectly plain so that nothing should distract the eye from the
pleasures of the ear; but he was careful to avoid that look of a
concert-room given by rows of chairs (suggesting restraint and reserved
guinea seats), and the music-room was furnished with comfortable lounges
and led into a hall containing small Empire sofas, in which not more
than two persons could be seated. Therefore the audience at his
entertainments often enjoyed themselves almost as much as the
performers, which is rare.

This afternoon there was the usual number of very tall women in large
highly-decorated hats, smooth-haired young men in coats that went in at
the waist, a very few serious amateurs with longish hair, whose
appearance did not quite come up to the standard of the _Tailor and
Cutter_, and a small number of wistful professional feminine artists in
no collars and pince-nez--in fact, the average fashionable, artistic
crowd. The two young geniuses, George Ranger and Nevil Butt, had just
given their rather electrifying performance, one playing the
compositions of the other, and then both singing Faure together, and a
small band of Green Bulgarians were now playing strenuously a symphony
of Richard Strauss, when Cecil and Mrs Raymond appeared together. Lord
Selsey received her as if she had been an old friend. When they shook