Chilvern says that he thinks we ought to have an old man.

   What for?

   Well, . . . he hesitates, then says, politely, that with all young ones, won't Mrs. Boodels be rather dull?

   (

    Happy Thought.

   —Old man for Mrs. Boodels, to talk to her through her ear-trumpet.)

   Boodels says, “Oh, no! his grandmother's never dull.”

   Milburd observes, that this choosing is like making up characters for a play. He takes in a theatrical newspaper, and proposes that we should set down what we want, after the style in which the managers frame their advertisements.

    Wanted.

   —A First Old Man. Also A Leading Heavy.

   He proposes “Byrton—Captain Byrton. He was in a dragoon regiment.”

    Happy Thought.

   —Good for “Leading Heavy.”

   Milburd's man is Byrton. Mine is Soames. I have an instinctive dislike to Byrton, I don't know why, perhaps because I perceive a certain amount of feeling against Soames.

    Boodels' Proposal.

   —That we should meet once a week to determine whose invitations should be renewed, and whose

    congé

   should be given.

    As President

   I say, “Well, but I can't tell our guests that they must go.”

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