Mr. Brown was at the theatre. He had got his ticket at the moment, so he had not been ahle to choose his seat. He now found that he was in the middle of a group of American la- dies, some of them middle-aged and some of them quite old. They clearly all knew each other well, as before the curtain went up on the play they had come to see, they all talked and joked a lot together. The lady sitting on Mr. Brown's left, who was about sixty years old, seemed to be the happiest and the most interesting of the American group, and after the first act of the play, she apologized to him for the noisiness of her friends. He answered that he was very glad to see American ladies so really enjoying their visit to England, and so they had a friendly talk. Mr. Brown's neighbour explained what they doing there. 'You know, I have known these ladies all my life,' she said. 'We all grew up together back in our hometown in the United States. They have all lost their husbands~ and call themselves the Merry Widows. It is a sort of club, you know. They go to a foreign country every summer or two and have a lot of fun. They always go everywhere together. I have wanted to join their club for a long time, but I was not able to become a member until the spring of this year.' The group of American ladies enjoyed the play in a theatre in______.