Annotations of Annabel

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 33, 1 March 1929, Page 13

Annotations of Annabel

DEAREST:

The vanguard is upon us of autumn modes, after short breathingspace ’twixt one season and the next. Summer hats wilt before our eyes, and purchases of a moon ago have lost their pristine glow and grow duller every minute, in that strange way coincident with appearance of "new goods," carrying with them eternal fascination of the novel and unknown. Welter of confusion inseparable from vast building improvements has subsided, and on dit that one establishent of dignity and quality intends sartorial splash at the end of the month, showing new and splendid treasures to be achieved with much fine gold by Aladdin’s Eve. Here and there forlorn garments remain ticketed in plate-glass windows, as a reminder to the thrifty that ’tis not too late to amass frocks and frills at magic figure of Half Price; but lure of change is upon us, and we move with the rising tide of fashion, discerning in mind’s eye faint gleams of glory that is to be. Unlike the pious maiden in the poem, we shall be fair to outward view and radiantly arrayed, judging from advance view of brocade and chenilles of sheen and colour unparalleled, which might. have adorned Scheherazade when engaged in her ancient and modern pastime of spinning tales for " beguilement of Himself. 'F it chances the exchequer is not at its brightest and best, try effect of carefully-cut slit, star or crescentshaped or arrow shooting into the air, in front of last year’s felt or velour, artfully arranging a flat curl in the gap, and thus achieve effect of the bizarre and le dernier cri at one and the same moment. News comes of coats of velvet that will console us in the winter of our discontent, preferably matching at least one evening gown. A black one is lavishly trimmed with astrackhan, that fierce fur-which calls for a wearer of martial mien; or, donned by our so géntle sex, at'least an "army man" for escort, Russian for choice! When the day dawns, that day of leisure and loafing that beckons to me of. us as insistently as ever it id to Gharles Lamb in the dingy office which prisoned the flying feet of the gentle wanderer on slopes of Parnassus, ’tis my intention to become a pamphleteer and write a kind but

searching brochure on Manners and Mistakes of Shop Assistants on the principle of the old maid who wrote a treatise on proper treatment of babies, ~For never have I served behind a counter, and probably never shall, though convinced I should prove a success in that far from arduous calling. QUITE lately I asked in a wellknown shop for a well-known book by: a well-known author. The youth with shining hair, who pursues a crust and a pleasant avocation at one and the same time, detached himself unwillingly from a voluble cobber, and swivelled upon me the reproachful eye apt to be turned upon delver for late anthology, essays causing a stir in the world beyond, or handful of plays in convenient form. "Gods of Grub Street!" he remarked listlessly. ‘We had one copy, but that’s gone. You should have come before! Hardly anyone asks for it," he vouchsafed in farewell. When, one wonders, shall we reach the ultima thule of ye very perfect. Booke Shoppe, with an intelligent vendor sans peur et sans reproche? woop and married and a’, Ethelwyn has returned from touring Europe, having added to her already not inconsiderable possessions a husband of sorts, some wonderful Lido pyjamas, and a babelet of two precocious summers, whose Olympians very wisely condemn him to silence and inertia before 7 a.m., when early morning tea breaks the spell. Yesterday, friendly and confiding, he chatted to male parent at unconscionably early hour, but met with no response. Greatly daring, he turned blue eyes and wheedling tones upon our Ethelyn, who also proved adamant. Undaunted, "B-gg-r!"? remarked loudly to himself this scion of the coming race! HE gentle art of entertaining is rendered more difficult by outmoded manners and snobbish self-im-portance occasionally cropping up; or perchance rival factions contradict or ignore conversation from the other camp which perchance results, in happy-go-lucky but socially-congested flat, in something like a "party in a parlour all silent and all d-d!"’ There is also the elderly visitor who takes herself seriously and disapproves of cigarettes and cinema. We all know that dear spoilsport and exponent of other times, other manners. "Why, Annabel!" wheezed a Scottish cousin-once-removed, as she surveyed my print of that vision of grace, the Botticelli Venus, through terrifying lorgnette of a past decade. "Is it possible, my dear, that you leave that picture hanging on the wall when there are Gentlemen present!" "He and the Duchess always turned their backs On those whose conduct was the least bit lax. Where’er they went they waved a moral banner, And constantly left rooms ina marked manner."

Your :

ANNABEL

LEE