For Services Rendered.

On Friday night a handful of students gathered in the Gym. to hear the Dramatic Club read Somerset Maughan's play. "For Services Rendered."

We soon became intimate with a war-shattered family. The blind and embittered son, Sydney, claims the self-sacrificing devotion of his elder sister. She loves a retired naval officer who is in grave financial difficulties. Her hitherto patient spirit breaks out in bursts of passionate unhappiness. The younger sister, deprived by the war of men of her own generation, decides to go away with a married man.

The quiet courage of the mother of this family and the kindness of her doctor brother stand out against the restless bitterness of the war generation.

Maughan uses his great ability to drive home to us the futility and tragedy of war. The father, oblivious to Lois' affair, to his wife's mortal sickness to his elder daughter's insanity, to his blind son's ruined life, remarks that they are really a very happy family after all and that he is sure they will all do their duty in the next war. "God save the King!" ironically chants his mad daughter; and the curtain drops.