We have been doing the things which we had
promised ourselves so often during the war, and though they have
been jolly enough, they are not quite all that we dreamed in
France and Flanders. As for the negative pleasures, the pleasure
of not saluting or not attending medical boards, they soon lose
their first freshness.
Yet I have had one pre-war pleasure this week which carried with
it no sort of disappointment. It was as good as I had thought it
would be. I went to Lord's and watched first-class cricket again.
There are people who want to "brighten cricket." They remind me
of a certain manager to whom I once sent a play. He told me, more
politely than truthfully, how much he had enjoyed reading it, and
then pointed out what was wrong with the construction. "You have
two brothers here," he said. "They oughtn't to have been
brothers, they should have been strangers. Then one of them
marries the heroine. That's wrong; the other one ought to have
married her. Then there's Aunt Jane--she strikes me as a very
colourless person. If she could have been arrested in the second
act for bigamy--- And then I should leave out your third act
altogether, and put the fourth act at Monte Carlo, and let the
heroine be blackmailed by-- what's the fellow's name? See what I
mean?" I said that I saw. "You don't mind my criticizing your
play?" he added carelessly.
Pages:
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104