give up smoking during your visit.”
“Oh, I say!”
“ Mr. Filmer is president of the Anti-Tobacco League.
Nor will you drink alcoholic stimulants.”
“Oh, dash it!”
“And you will kindly exclude from your conversation all that is suggestive of the bar, the billiard-room, and the stage-door. Mr. Filmer will judge you largely by your conversation.”
I rose to a point of order.
“Yes, but why have I got to make an impression on this—on Mr. Filmer?”
“Because,” said the old relative, giving me the eye, “I particularly wish it.”
Not, perhaps, a notably snappy comeback as comebacks go; but it was enough to show me that that was more or less that;