I might add that the latter greatly distinguished
himself in the air during the war.
The "Grill-room" is quite a unique club. It consists of one room only,
a lofty, white-panelled hall, with an open timber roof. Nearly every
distinguished man connected with the English stage for the last forty
years has been a member of this club; Henry Irving, Charles Wyndham,
Arthur Sullivan, W. S. Gilbert, George Grossmith, Corney Grain, George
Alexander, Herbert Beerbohm Tree, and Arthur Cecil are only a few of
the celebrities for whom this passing show is over, but who were
members of the club. It is unnecessary for me to give a list of the
present members; it is enough to say that it comprises every prominent
English actor of to-day.
Arthur Cecil had a delightful nature, with a marked but not unpleasant
"old-maidish" element in it. For instance, no mortal eye had ever
beheld him without a little black handbag. Wherever Arthur Cecil went
the little bag went with him. There was much speculation amongst his
friends as to what the contents of this mysterious receptacle might
be. Many people averred, in view of his notoriously large appetite,
that it was full of sandwiches, in case he should become smitten with
hunger whilst on the stage, but he would tell no one.
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