The partition walls came to an
end at quite a long distance from the front; and, with the general company
spreading themselves at large over the whole width of the foreground, it
was very difficult to entertain any illusion of that privacy which is of
the essence of the _cabinet particulier_. I say nothing of the bedroom,
whose tenancy was frankly promiscuous.
The fun, of course, is old-fashioned; if one may say it of a French farce,
it is Victorian. Apart from a few topical allusions worked in rather
perfunctorily there is scarcely anything said or done that might not have
been said or done in the 'eighties. But for a certain type of Englishman
there is a perennial attraction in feeling that at any moment the
proprieties may be outraged. That they never actually are outraged does not
seem very greatly to affect his pleasure. He can always console himself
with easy conjecture of the wickedness of the original. So there will never
be wanting a public for these _Noctes Parisianae_.
Let us hope that somehow it all helps to keep the sacred flame of the
Entente burning. _Vive MILLERAND!_
O.S.
* * * * *
BETTERING THE BANYOROS.
(_By a Student of Anthropology._)
Sir JAMES FRAZER'S luminous _resume_ of the investigations of the MACKIE
Expedition amongst the Banyoros has only one defect.
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