A Peep Behind the Scenes Lieutenant-Colonel Charles A. Court Repington, whose rule in the Great War was principally that of military critic om the Home Front, has written a book of social gossip which will be widely read. It should astonish the plain man, to whom the inner circle of high' society is as remote as the moon—probably more so, for the moon is always open to his gaze on fine night. Colonel Repington's book gives us a series of peeps behind the social scene, and is for the most part (to quote a London review) "a record of dinner-gossip of the great during the months when the small were dying and being maimed." Conceivably, the Colonel has been somewhat indis-erect in placing the war-time gossip of Mayfair at the disposal of the populace. He calls his book "The First World War," calmly presupposing a second calamity of the same nature: an upheaval that his somewhat con-celted record does nothing to avert. Here we get, the trenches as seen from Mayfair. It is perhaps fortunate for Mayfair that its pretty dalliance and intrigue were not apparent to the men in the trenches.
On New Year's eve, a black day for the Army in France, Colonel Repington makes this instructive entry in his diary:
"A New Year's patty at 35, Bel grave Square.-Lady Paget, the Duchess of Westminster, Lord' and Lady Ancaster, Lord and Lady Colebrooke, Mrs. Cis Bingham, Belle Herbert, Jack Cowans (General Sir John Cowans), Mrs. Duggan, Mr. O'Beirne, Sir Louis Mallet, the Aga Khar, and one or two others whom I forget. 'A very cheery evening. We dressed up in the hats from the crackers, ragged a good deal, went out into the square at midnight to hear the chimes, and then back to drink an excellent punch ard sing Auld Long Syne."
Two Stipes or THe Pictures. that the Colonel was troubled with The following en genre
twinges of conscience—though they did snot prevent his sticking courageously to the social round.
December 14, 1916.—Sat on the Tribunal all the afternoon. Horrible Process of sending fathers of families into the Army. Then to the Ritz, half an hour late, to dine with Lady Strafford's party for the Italian Day. We were a large party and had a huge round table...,. The contrast between the afternoon and the evening made me sad.
Afterwards a. vaudeville, and Lady Constance Stewart-Richardson posed and contorted and danced, in few clothes and with bare feet. She looked like a white dervish. Lady
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.