"]
* * * * *
=OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.=
(_By Mr. Punch's Staff of Learned Clerks_.)
It is my deliberate verdict that Mr. E.F. BENSON is (as my old nurse
used to express it) "in league with Somebody he oughtn't." I hope,
however, that he will understand this for the extorted compliment that
it is, and not magic me into something unpleasant, or (more probably)
write another book to prove to my own dissatisfaction that I am
everything I least wish to be. That indeed is the gravamen of my
charge: the diabolic ingenuity with which he makes not so much our
pleasant vices as our little almost-virtues into whips to scourge us
with. All this has been wrung from me by the perusal of _Mr. Teddy_
(FISHER UNWIN). Even now I can't make up my mind whether I like it or
not. The first half, which might be called a satire on the folly of
being forty and not realising it, depressed me profoundly. I need not
perhaps enlarge upon the reason. Later, Mr. BENSON made a very clever
return upon the theme; and, with a touch of real beauty, brought
solace to poor _Mr.
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