ACCIDENTAL CONVERSATION.
fTo THE EDITOR OF THE " EIPECTATOR."1
Sin,—In your article on "Accidental Conversation," in the Spectator of September 26th, you give a "distinct denial" the proposition that "it is mean and dishonourable to sit. behind your paper listening hard all the time to what some old gentleman is saying to his niece," 8m., as long as the listener refrains from listening to "anything which is being said about himself, or his friends or relations, in ignorance of his presence." But suppose you are being discussed by people who do not know you by sight, in a railway-carriage, and it is impossible to move away like the upright house- holder described in your article,—what is the man of honour to do ? I ask the question, because I know a case in which this happened.
The wife of a Cabinet Minister went out of town for a day or two, the week before she was to hold a big official reception. She got into a carriage at Euston in which were a young lady and (apparently) her aunt, her intrusion being much resented by the young lady, who, I am sorry to say, did not scruple to utter audible expressions of annoyance at the invasion of her privacy, and altogether tried to make things as awkward and uncomfortable as possible for the Cabinet Minister's unhappy wife. The latter, however, settled down behind her paper till she was roused by the sound of her own name. "Are you going to Mrs. —'s reception?" the young lady was asking her aunt. Yes, the aunt was going. Whereupon the niece broke into vehement exclamations of her desire to go too, and for the rest of the journey talked over every possibility of getting an invitation from the Cabinet Minister's wife, who was all the time sitting opposite to her. Your rule, Sir, for the man of honour does not seem to cover this case. Ought the Cabinet Minister's wife to have declared herself?
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