44 



The Review of Reviews. 



concealed in the lining of her husband's hat. "This is a 

 capital plan," says Charlie; "it brings the husband uncon- 

 scioinly into the game, instead of leaving him out in the 

 cold." 



Charlie soliloquises so long that he is interrupted before he 

 has burnt the letters. Presently Dumphie appears to reproach 

 him with the way in which his friendship for him (Dumphie) 

 lias cooled since Rhoda's death. When that melancholy event 

 occurretl, Dumphie look comfort even in his sorrow, saying to 

 himself, " At least I have dear old Charlie left." But Charlie 

 has quite deserted him. Charlie points out that in those days 

 " tiiey lived on the same line," and manages to appease 

 Dumphie by asking him to the wedding breakfast. " Now 

 that you are going to be married," says l3umphie, " it will be 

 the old times over again with the parts reversed. I shall be 

 to you and your wife what you were to us." Charlie favours 

 th.e audience with a confidential grimace. 



As Dumphie goes oB' to dress for the wedding Peploe enters. 

 "Who was that melancholy-looking man?" asks Peploe. 

 "That was your predecessor," Charlie answers. " I mean, he 

 was here before you." Peploe is charmed at the news of 

 Charlie's marriage. " It will be just like old times — only now 

 we shall be four instead of three." 



To them enters Mrs. Fishbourne, Charlie's prospective 

 mother-in-law. She has received an anonymous letter stating 

 that Charlie has an entanglement with a married woman, and 

 passes all his evenings at her house. Peploe; "Of that 

 charge, at least, I can triumphantly clear him ; for, madam, he 

 passes all his evenings at my house. We play a game called 

 ' Funny Families.' \Vhen there are three players, each tries to 

 get four families. Charlie's very good at the game." Mention 

 is made of the other game, " My bird sings," which Charlie 

 used to play at Dumphie's. "Is it like our game? " asks Peploe. 

 " Not unlike," replies Charlie with a grin. 



The mother-in-law goes off appeased ; but Peploe picks up a 

 fragment of the anonymous letter and sees that it is in his wife's 

 handwriting. For the moment his suspicions are aroused ; but 

 Charlie pacifies him by telling him that it is true he was the 

 lover of a married woman for two years and a half, but the 

 lady is now dead. Thereupon enter Dumphie, and Charlie 

 introduces him to Peploe, saying, with a chuckle, "I really 

 think you two ought to know one another." Dumphie at once 

 begins to relate how Charlie has been his bosom friend for two 

 years and a half; whereupon Peploe exclaims, "Then it was 

 you ! " and bursts into a roar of laughter. When Dumphie 

 inquires the reason of this hilarity, Peploe goes into another 

 paroxysm, and replies, " It's a relief to my mind to find ihal 

 it's you, and not me." Then he nudges Charlie, as he looks at 

 Dumphie, saying, "You can almost tell 'em by sight 1 " and 

 again breaks into a guffaw. 



Act II. — Charlie and his wife have returned from their 

 honeymoon. Peploe calls to invite them to a charity matinee, 

 at which is to be performed in dumb show a scene from the 

 prohibited play " Sewage," by ".Mr. Bleater." He proposes 

 lo bring Mrs. Peploe, and Charlie is at his wits' end as to how 

 to prevent a meeting between his wife and his mistress, whose 

 violent character he fears. Fortunately Peploe mentions that 

 he has just been to call on his wife's cousin, Monty Shekelstein, 

 to ask him, from llonora, "the price of Dawning Days." 

 Charlie is delighted to find that Honora has opened a new 

 chapter in the book of her adulteries, and at once searches 

 beneath the lining of Peploe's hal for the letter which he knows 

 must be there. Sure enough he finds a note from Monty 

 .Shekelstein, containing the assignation, " Rumpelmeyer's 

 5 p.m." He alters the S to 3, the hour of the matinee, in 



perfect confidence that Honora will go to Rumpelmeyer's ana 

 not to the theatre. " Then Honora still dabbles in Westra- 

 lians ? " he says to Peploe, and he replies: "She's never 

 happy unless she's speculating on the rise and fall." 



After many adventures, the casket of letters which we have 

 seen in the first act conies to the front ' again. In order to 

 conceal them from his wife, Charlie hands one packet of letters 

 (Mrs. Dumphie's, as he believes), to Peploe, and the other 

 packet (Mrs. Peploe's, as he thj/iks) to Dumphie. He finds 

 that a mistake has been made, and that each husband is in 

 possession of the proof of his own wife's guilt. However, each 

 returns him his packet unopened, and the curtain falls upon the 

 radiant adulterer standing with his arms crossed between his 

 two victims, giving a hand to each, and singing " Auld Lang 

 Syne." This is an English embellishment, not in the French 

 play. 



Act III. — In this act Charlie is still haunted by Peploe ami 

 Dumphie. Mrs. Charlie wants to call upon Mrs. Peploe, antl 

 in order to prevent her from doing so Charlie tells her that 

 Mrs. Peploe is carrying on an intrigue with Monty Shekelstein. 

 If she wants proof of the fact, she has oi;ly to look under the 

 lining of Peploe's hat, where she will find a letter from one 

 or other of the pair. She does so ; but unfortunately Peploe is 

 wearing a hat of the previous year, and the letter she finds runs 

 thus : " Dear old Charlie, — If you will swear that there never 

 was anything between that Mrs. Dumphie and yourself I will 

 come to tlje flat and forgive you. — Honora." Of course, Mrs. 

 Charlie has now no doubt w'hatever as to the relations between 

 her husband and the two ladies in question. Consequently she 

 is not greatly amused when Peploe and Dumphie vie with each 

 other in telling anecdotes of their own blindness, and Charlie's 

 various devices for outwitting them. Thus : — 



Peploe : " We have a spaniel called Buddha that is devoted 

 to dear old Charlie. Whenever he is anywdiere near, Buddha 

 at once sits up on his hind legs and begs. Well, one day I 

 had taken Buddha \i'illi me to the City, and I came home 

 earlier than usual. What did Buddha do but walk straight up 

 to the window curtains of my wife's room, and beg ! I drew 

 the curtain, and there was Charlie ! Of course Honora had 

 seen us coming, and had hidden him there just to see if Buddha 

 would find him out." 



Dumphie: "Dear old Charlie is wonderfully good at 

 training parrots. My poor departed Rhoda had a red and 

 green parrot, ami Charlie taught him to give a scream and cry, 

 ' Here comes old Dumphie ! ' the moment I eTitered the 

 house." 



Peploe : " Do you remember, Charlie, the night when you 

 bet mc jCs 'hat I couldn't walk to Chertsey and back, just as I 

 was, in my evening dress and pumps, in ten hours? I set off, 

 and did every step of it, «-ith an hour and a half to spare ; and 

 when I got back \\itli the milk in the morning — would you 

 believe it? — there were Charlie and Honora sitting up 

 for me ! " 



These anecdotes so get on Mrs. Charlie's nerves that she tells 

 him he must send his two victims away. " In the old days 

 they talk of," she says, "you seem to have been clever enough 

 at getting rid of lliem." Charlie does contrive to dismiss them ; 

 and then Mrs. Charlie pretends great indignation, and says she 

 is going to leave his house. " But before I go," she says 

 archly, "I want you to tell mc the price of Home Rails 

 United," and she hands him his hat. Charlie does not at first 

 catch the idea ; but then he looks beneath the lining of his hat 

 and finds this note : — " .My dearest, if you need it, you have my 

 forgiveness." He takes her tenderly in his arms, and lo slow 

 iiiuiic the curtain falls. 



Owing to the resignation of Mr. Redford, who has for many years [last been sole examiner of plays sub- 

 mitted to the Lord Chamberlain as Censor, Mr. Charles Brookficld, the author of "Dear Old Charlie" and 

 many other plays, is now the sole examiner. He is a kind of domestic chaplain to the Lord Chamberlain, the 

 eye through whom the Lord Chamberlain sees the plays which it is his duty to certify as fit or unfit lor 

 performance on the .stage. 



The original apiiointnient of Mr. Brookfield as joint examiner roused an almost unanimous protest in the 

 Press. Now that lie reigns alone it is more than ever necessary that this protest should be made eftVctive. 



