[Illustration:  THE DISCOMFITURE OF A KITCHEN LOTHARIO.

Captain Corkoran .........  MR. MALCOLM CHERRY.
Adams (a butler) .......  MR. ERNEST HENDRIE.
Mabel Vere ...............  MISS GLADYS COOPER.]

The types that came to inspect Mabel Vere were sufficiently varied.  There was a masterful Colonial (finally ejected by a lady-friend, who performed a jujitsu feat which required a very palpable collusion on his part); a butler; an Army Officer (with a reputation for exploring); a gay naval thruster, and an old gentleman who ought to have known better.  To most of them she opposed an air of virgin superciliousness very disappointing to their justifiable anticipations; but the butler promised copy, and she accepted an invitation to tea in his kitchen.  This scene furnished some very excellent and natural fun, and there was really no need to introduce, and exploit over and over again, the hallowed device of a trip-mat, that last resort of the bankrupt farceur.  The necessary complications ensued with the unexpected arrival of the master (one of the candidates for the lady’s hand, I need not say), who makes sudden demand for an early dinner, a thing impossible to execute with the cook in a fit of hysterics induced by jealousy of the lady who had supplanted her in the butler’s perfidious affections.

In the third Act we return to Mabel’s flat and resume her interviews with the applicants for her hand.  This revival of the situation of the First Act was a weakness in the construction.  The original fiance—­a wooden dummy set up for the purpose of being knocked down—­is dismissed, and Captain Corkoran, the bold explorer, is appointed to the vacancy.  He deserved his luck; but, if I wish him joy of it, I do so without a pang of envy, for she was much too good at back-chat for a quiet life, to say nothing of her taste in literature, which would want a deal of correction.

Of course Miss GLADYS COOPER made her seem much more desirable than she really was. (I speak of her personal charm and not of her agreeable costumes, which are for the pens of more instructed reviewers.  I got nothing out of a lady near me, whom I recognised as a dramatic critic by a question that her neighbour put to her.  “Do you know this frock,” she asked, “or will you have to go behind?”) Apart from the delightful picture which Miss COOPER always presents she has a most swift and delicate feeling for the details of her craft.  She has the confidence that avoids over-emphasis, and she does her audience the compliment of assuming that they have intelligence enough to understand the least of those little nods of hers that have the true eloquence of an under-statement.  Mr. MALCOLM CHERRY was at his best and easiest as Captain Corkoran.  Mr. HENDRIE handled the broad humour of the butler with imperturbable restraint, and Miss BARBARA GOTT was as fine and human a cook as I ever wish to meet in her native lair.  Miss MARGARET FRASER, a most attractive figure, was a model for any housemaid on whose damask cheek the concealment of an unrequited passion for her master feeds like a worm i’ th’ bud.  Altogether a really excellent cast.