Miss VIOLET VANBRUGH was patently nervous with her part, a little jerky and restless.  She needn’t have been.  Loyalty would have carried her through a duller play, to say nothing of her charming looks and her queenly way of wearing a beautiful gown.  Mr. LOWNE, as the baronet, made effective play with a quite impossible part in a quite futile situation, and held the reflector up to the best Mayfair Cockney with “Georginar explains.”  He needn’t apologise; we know it’s true to life!  The piece of acting that most cheered me was Mr. GRAHAME HERINGTON as the philanderer’s manservant—­a very tactful and observant performance.  Mr. FRANK ESMOND, the philanderer, seemed ill at ease (partly art but partly nature, I judged, perhaps unjustly).  Miss LETTICE FAIRFAX as the little goose was what I believe is known as adequate.

T.

* * * * *

The Food Shortage.

Letter received by a schoolteacher:—­

    “Dear Miss,—­Will you please let Sam out about 20 minutes to 12
    o’clock.  His Granma is undergoing an operation this morning and
    I want Sam for dinner.

    Yours truly, Mrs. ——.”

* * * * *

From a report of the British Music Convention:—­

    “‘How the British piano can raise the trade to Imperil dignity’
    was the subject of an address.”—­Scotsman.

We hope the British piano will resist the temptation.

* * * * *

“Portobello’s dressing boxes for lady bathers are practically ready.  There are fifteen boxes at the Band Stand enclosure, very much resembling ballot boxes in size, shape, and material.”—­Edinburgh Evening Dispatch.

A happy thought to prepare the new voters for taking the plunge.

* * * * *

    “The members of the Cabinet occupied specially reserved seats
    in the choir and lectern, where also the Lord Mayor was
    seated.”—­Scotsman.

A little hard on the eagle.

* * * * *

From a cinema advertisement:—­

“Actual Scenes of our Local Charming Cheddar Valley and the Beautiful West of England Coast Scenery, also predicting those Glorious Sunset Scenes that made Sir Alfred Turner ‘famous.’”—­West Country Paper.

The General will be pleased.

* * * * *

“To-day the weather has cleared, but the record according to a correspondent who, signing himself the ‘oldest inhabitant,’ has recently written to the press, stating that in 1178 there was snow on Simla on 14th April, has now been easily beaten.”—­Rangoon Times.

The oldest inhabitant, however, is still undefeated.

* * * * *

MY CUTHBERT.