UNITED STATES AND CANADA 83 



Bergne rather squirmed when he read this in the 

 paper the next day. I was enormously amused at 

 the pen-portrait of myself, and sent copies home to 

 some friends in the Foreign Office and also one to 

 my dear old mother at Leamington. She, poor old 

 lady, took it all au pied de la lettre, and a subsequent 

 mail brought me a letter from her in which she 

 expressed great concern at my having become so 

 obese, which she was convinced could hardly be 

 consistent with comfort. Some months later, when 

 we got back to the ** Old Country," I took the first 

 opportunity of running down to Leamington to see 

 her, and, to keep up the joke, put a huge cushion 

 underneath my overcoat and walked into the draw- 

 ing-room. She of course greeted me affectionately, 

 but I could see her eye was fixed on the place where 

 my ** chest had dropped," which she subsequently 

 stroked, remarking, ** You have indeed put on some 

 flesh, my dear boy ! " " Yes," I said, " there's 

 some canvas-back duck and terrapin there, isn't 

 there } " However, I didn't keep up the illusion 

 long, and when I took off my fur coat and the cushion 

 fell on the floor, she breathed a sigh of relief, and 

 we both laughed heartily. *' Those were happy 

 days ! " as George Graves so frequently remarked 

 in the last pantomime at ** the Lane." 



