But "fast, ah too fast, fade the ro-o-0-oses ' of summer" as our Victorian aunts used to carol in to chorus.
"The season is all but over without ever having seemed properly to have begun, Now T read articles about what to wear at Cowes, which tell me that T must on no account wear high heels, which are apt to catch in ropes and stairs and make holes in the Royal Yacht Squadron's lawn, won't; I shar''t be there. Nor will the King and Queen: they need a rest and will be off to Scot Iand as soon as they can. And the big yachts. Velsheda, Endeavour, Astra and the others are too expensive to run, So it looks like being: rather a dull Cowes.
Are not these great pageants rather out of date, sumptuous artiicialities preserved from a happier past, like the Beofeaters's uniforms, because nobody has the courage to say that the world is really Interested in tanks and aeroplanes and national volunteer service? That at any rate is rather the feeling of the moment when we are all very serious, However, we like to keep up old institu. tions in England, and no doubt we shall turn young'and frivolous again some day, and play all the old games with new zest.
Meanwhile it has been a very dull season and the shortage in engagements of debutantes makes the public schools anxious as to where their future pupils will come from.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.