Byrne Fraser, who gave his wife great and constant anxiety by
his fantasies, related how he had curious dreams--the distressing part
of which was that they never came true--about the death of relatives at
the front. Another man also had morbid fancies on the subject of the
casualty list, and had had to go and stay at a farm so as to 'get right
away from it all'. But he soon left, as he had found, to his great
disappointment, that his companions there were not intellectual, and
could not even talk politics or discuss literature. And yet they went in
(or so he had heard) for 'intensive culture'!...
Presently Sir Tito played his Italian march. The musical portion of the
party, and the unmusical alike, joined in the chorus. Then the party
received a welcome addition. Valdez, the great composer, who had written
many successful operas and had lived so much abroad that he cared now
for nothing but British music, looked in after a patriotic concert given
in order to help the unengaged professionals. Always loyal to old
friends, he had deserted royalty itself tonight to greet Mrs. Mitchell
and was persuaded by adoring ladies to sing his celebrated old song,
'After Several Years.
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