Social cant and empty phrases, Base returns for kindness shown, Envy's serpent-smile, and praises Which convey, for bread, a stone, What a joy to have rejected All such griefs, of evil born!

And a coffee-and-cake social was, after all, a rather tame experience in the face of beverages more sparkling and eatables distinctly enticing....

The last social we had was a Mother Goose, and we have had Brownie suppers and Pink teas and everything else we could think of.