* * * * *
[Illustration: _Lady with Pram_ (_who has been pointing out to newcomer
the beauties of the neighbourhood, where a strike is threatened_).
"THAT'S ONE OF THE 'OT 'EADS."]
* * * * *
AT THE PLAY.
"EVERY WOMAN'S PRIVILEGE."
When _Dahlia_ refused the hand of a wealthy middle-aged nut, with
faultless knickerbockers and a gift for lucubrated epigrams, preferring
to throw in her lot (platonically) with a young and penniless social
reformer, we took no notice of those who feared a scandal ("scandals are
not what they were," as she said), nor of the girl's assertion that she
had no use for the alleged romance of marriage. We were confident that
the little god whose image, with bow and arrow, stood in the garden of
_Dahlia's_ ancestral home, would put things right for us in the end. Yet
we were not greatly annoyed when he made a mess of his business and
married her to the wrong man; for in the meantime such strange things
had been allowed to occur and the right man had proved such a
disappointment that we didn't much care what happened to anybody.
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