Yet the play was mixed of all moods, from gay to earnest, and offered excellent scope for the versatility of Miss Marie Tempest. Mr. Clarence's humour, on the other hand, was not so well served; and there were frequent _longueurs_ during the episodes in which the _Dowager Lady Wynmarten_ figured. She was meant to be a terror, and had some very vicious things to say; but Miss Agnes Thomas delivered them with superfluously well-bred restraint, and the level tone of her bitter suavity tended to become a little tedious.
Mr. Graham Browne showed a very nice self-repression as the widow's dummy. But he let himself go with his cigarettes which in moments of emotion he threw away with an appalling recklessness after the first two whiffs.
The rest of the cast did ample justice to a play which, if it is Mr. Powell's first, must be commended for its promise. But the next time he writes a Four-Act Comedy he must try and give us more than one Act without any tea in it.
(_Ladies of the coloured hair school are reported to be painting dragons on their cheeks in place of complexion spots._)
When the world was very young And agog with derring-do, Knights went courting maids who hung Chained, for dragons' teeth to chew; Found their lass, and set her free, Having duly on the spot Slain the dragon (or, maybe, Having failed to slay, did not).
Later, when your maid demure, Long of lash and coy of mien, Seemed a conquest swift and sure, Fiercer monsters stepped between: Mrs. Grundies, grey and grim, Kept Miss Proper closely tied; Beaus dissolved before the prim Portly dragon at her side.
Now there dawns a lighter day; Chaperons are nearly dead; Undefended lies the way For your amorous wight to tread, Yet we still must pay our toll, We who woo the guarded rose: Frightful at the very goal Lurks the dragon _by her nose_.
Modern maidens, if upon Cheeks that court the curious stare Voluntarily you don This insane pictorial wear, Know your tricks intrigue us not, Frankly, ladies, they appal; Out, I say, out, damnéd spot! We don't like your cheek at all.
"It was here yesterday," I said. "I am quite sure I saw it."
"A letter," I said, "that required an answer."
"Well," she said, "there are about fifty letters of that kind on your table there. Why don't you answer some of those? You can take your pick of them."