drunk; also for a man to be drunk without—”      

       “Oh, a man is all the better,” declared Mrs. Korner, “for letting himself go occasionally.”      

       “My dear—”      

       “You, Christopher, would be all the better for letting yourself go—occasionally.”      

       “I wish,” said Mr. Korner, as he passed his empty cup, “you would not say things you do not mean. Anyone hearing you—”      

       “If there's one thing makes me more angry than another,” said Mrs. Korner,       “it is being told I say things that I do not mean.”      

       “Why say them then?” suggested Mr. Korner.     

       “I don't. I do—I mean I do mean them,” explained Mrs. Korner.     

       “You can hardly mean, my dear,” persisted her husband, “that you really think I should be all the better for getting drunk—even occasionally.”      

       “I didn't say drunk; I said 'going it.'”      

       “But I do 'go it' in moderation,” pleaded Mr. Korner, “'Moderation in all things,' that is my motto.”      

       “I know it,” returned Mrs. Korner.     

       “A little of everything and nothing—” this time Mr. Korner interrupted himself. “I fear,” said Mr. Korner, rising, “we must postpone the further discussion of this interesting topic. If you would not mind stepping out with me into the passage, dear, there are one or two little matters connected with the house—”      

       Host and hostess squeezed past the visitor and closed the door behind them. The visitor continued eating.     

       “I do mean it,” repeated Mrs. Korner, for the third time, reseating herself a minute later at the table. “I would give anything—anything,”        reiterated the lady recklessly, “to see Christopher more like the ordinary sort of man.”      

       “But he has always been the sort—the sort of man he is,” her bosom friend reminded her.     

       “Oh, during the engagement, of course, one expects a man to be perfect. I didn't think he 

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