I think not. Yet the rather stoutish man Who never raised his head but chewed and chewed Annoyed me as I feasted. I began To deem him one who had no higher plan, No larger outlook in life's journeyings, than Resonant demolition of his food.
I longed to point to him the hedges twined With starry blossoms, and the coats like silk Of oxen as they wandered unconfined; I longed to ask him if his heavier mind Preferred the cattle of more stedfast kind Stamped with advertisements of malted milk.
The little red-brick hamlets, poised apart, And all the grandeur of the rolling leas, I longed to ask him if they brought no smart Of scarce-remembered boyhood to his heart. But I refrained; and he took cherry tart And after that two different kinds of cheese.
And then we neared a little market town Half hidden in the dale, that seemed to cling Fondly about a church of old renown; And here the fat man started and looked down And filled his tumbler to the foaming crown And held it high as if to pledge the KING.
Some memory seemed to stir within his breast As though the curtain of old days were torn, And, as he drained the glass with eager zest, "Behold," I thought, "I wronged him. In that nest, So far from turmoil, full of old-world rest (He is about to tell me), he was born.
"And now, before the antique spire hath fled, Because remembrance of his home is dear, He toasts it deeply." All my wrath was dead. Then the man smiled at me and wagged his head; "Junction for Little Barleythorpe," he said; "A week ago these points upset my beer."
[The growing popularity of the one-Act play has prompted the aphorism that what is required in this class of drama is a "maximum of action with a minimum of explanation." Nevertheless the following effort has been rejected by every Manager in London--a fact which decisively answers the oft-repeated question, "Do Managers read plays?"]
SCENE--_A luxuriously furnished room in the flat of_ Violet Hazelwood. Violet _is seated, writing. The telephone on the table rings noisily._
_Violet_ (_picking up the receiver_). Hello! Yes.... It's me.... Oh, it's Reggie.... Yes, I'm at home to you.... In three minutes?... Right, I shall be here. (_Hangs up receiver._)
_Maid_ (_entering suddenly_). Sir Frank Bulkeley, m'm. (_Goes out and_ Sir Frank _enters._)