of France; but as they were
due back in a couple of days I decided to put up at the Royal George,
a very decent inn, and await their return.

"The first day I passed well enough; but in the evening the dulness of
the rambling old place, in which I was the only visitor, began to weigh
upon my spirits, and the next morning after a late breakfast I set out
with the intention of having a brisk day's walk.

"I started off in excellent spirits, for the day was bright and frosty,
with a powdering of snow on the iron-bound roads and nipped hedges, and
the country had to me all the charm of novelty. It was certainly flat,
but there was plenty of timber, and the villages through which I passed
were old and picturesque.

"I lunched luxuriously on bread and cheese and beer in the bar of a small
inn, and resolved to go a little further before turning back. When at
length I found I had gone far enough, I turned up a lane at right angles
to the road I was passing, and resolved to find my way back by another
route. It is a long lane that has no turning, but this had several, each
of which had turnings of its own, which generally led, as I found by
trying two or three of them, into the open marshes. Then, tired of
lanes, I resolved to rely upon the small compass which hung from my watch
chain and go across country home.

"I had got well into the marshes when a white fog, which had been for
some time hovering round the edge of the ditches, began gradually to
spread. There was no escaping it, but by aid of my compass I was saved
from making a circular tour and fell instead into frozen ditches or
stumbled over roots in the grass. I kept my course, however, until at
four o'clock, when night was coming rapidly up to lend a hand to the fog,
I was fain to confess myself lost.

"The compass was now no good to me, and I wandered about miserably,
occasionally giving a shout on the chance of being heard by some passing
shepherd or farmhand. At length by great good luck I found my feet on a
rough road driven through the marshes, and by walking slowly and tapping
with my stick managed to keep to it. I had followed it for some distance
when I heard footsteps approaching me.

"We stopped as we met, and the new arrival, a sturdy-looking countryman,
hearing of my plight, walked back with me for nearly a mile, and putting
me on to a road gave me minute instructions how to reach a village some
three miles distant.

"I was so tired that th