WHEN " SILENCE IS GOLDEN 5 



road, and then, mounting his steed, rode home 

 on it, leaving his fellow-passenger to spend the 

 night in solitary state under a hedge and the 

 stars of night, some miles from the haven where 

 he would be. It allowed him ample time to chew 

 the cud of reflection, and to ponder upon the 

 truth of the axiom that, under some circum- 

 stances, silence really is golden. I am glad to be 

 able to record that the incident did not lead to 

 any permanent estrangement. It was not long 

 before the matter was made up, and each admitted 

 to the other that he was wrong, whilst for the 

 rest of the world who got wind of the transaction 

 the pair jointly summed up the situation by 

 piously ejaculating : " However we could have 

 been such a couple of darned fools we can't 

 think ! " 



These dinners possessed two distinguishing 

 features which altered times have done very 

 much to curtail the speeches and the songs. 

 The former were not notable as oratorical efforts ; 

 it was the number of them delivered at one sitting 

 that was so remarkable. Even in a fairly large 

 company it not infrequently happened that before 

 the entertainment had concluded the health of 

 every person at the table had been proposed and 

 responded to. I have known the proposer of a 

 toast remark that all he could say of the gentle- 

 man whose health he was about to propose was 

 that he was the only one who had not already 

 been thus honoured, and he didn't see why he 

 should be left out in the cold. Happily, most of 

 the speakers were, like this one, soon gravelled 

 for lack of matter, so that they were not on their 



57 



