And to fail at the last minute! Oh, CREATURE!" "Dear aunt," said Jane, "if poor Madame Velma has a sudden attack of laryngitis, she could not possibly sing a note, even had the Queen commanded her.

Her telegram is full of regrets." "Don't argue, Jane!" exclaimed the duchess, crossly.

"And don't drag in the Queen, who has nothing to do with my concert or Velma's throat.

I do abominate irrelevance, and you know it! WHY must she have her what--do--you--call--it, just when she was coming to sing here?
In my young days people never had these new-fangled complaints.

I have no patience with all this appendicitis and what not--cutting people open at every possible excuse.