THE LITTLE TEA BOOK 



she answered, the Spectator was not 

 come in, but that the tea-kettle 

 boiled, and she expected it every 

 minute." 



Crabbe, too, was a devotee of ladies, 

 literature, and tea, for he wrote : 



*' The gentle fair on nervous tea relies, 

 Whilst gay good-nature sparkles in her eyes ; 

 And inoffensive scandal fluttering round, 

 Too rough to tickle and too light to wound." 



What better proof do we want, 

 therefore, that to women's influence 

 is due the cultivation and retention 

 of the tea habit ? Without tea, what 

 would become of women, and with- 

 out women and tea, what would be- 

 come of our domestic literary men 

 and matinee idols ? They would not 

 sit at home or in salons and write 

 and act things. There would be no 

 homes to sit in, no salons or theatres 



78 



