The Night Life of the Gods

CRITICIZING AN EXPLOSIONThe small family group gathered in the library was only conventionally alarmed by the sound of a violent explosion-a singularly self-centred sort of explosion.'Well, thank God, that's over, ' said Mrs Alice Pollard Lambert, swathing her sentence in a sigh intended to convey an impression of hard-pressed fortitude. With bleak eyes she surveyed the fragments of a shattered vase. Its disastrous dive from the piano as a result of the shock had had in it something of the mad deliberation of a suicide's plunge. Its hideous days were over now, and Mrs Lambert was dimly aware of another little familiar something having been withdrawn from her life.'I hope to high heaven this last one satisfies him for this spring at least, ' was the petulant comment of Alfred, the male annexe of Alice.'I've been waiting and waiting and waiting, ' came a thin disembodied voice from a dark corner. 'Night and day I've been waiting and expecting-''And hoping and praying, no doubt, Grandpa, ' interrupted Daphne, idly considering a run in her stocking and wondering what she was going to do about it, if anything, and when would be the least boring time to do it if she did, which she doubted.'Alice, ' complained Grandpa Lambert from the security of his shadows, 'that baggage has no respect for her eld