staff are well
occupied prevents them from furnishing shelves of bookstalls with
records of their observation. The classes are there (an effort is
being made to cancel one useful intermediate stage), presenting
themselves, for the most part, in a highly-agitated condition of mind,
with the result that officials acquire the methods of those who deal
with the mentally unhinged; show themselves prepared for any display of
eccentricity. Ever, as in life, you remark the people who arrive too
soon, or too late; a few lucky ones come in the very nick of time. The
last named are favourites, selected with no obvious reason by Fortune,
and greatly envied by their contemporaries; it is usual for them to
claim the entire credit to themselves. Apart from these, at the
terminal stations where no barriers exist, are folk who make but little
affectation of being passengers, and use the station as a playground,
with engine and train for toys.

To Paddington at a quarter to ten in the morning came hurriedly,
although there was no cause for hurry, Gertie Higham, escorted by Mr.
Trew, both exceptionally costumed as befitting a notable occasion.
Gertie's escort had a pair of driving-gloves, and he could not
determine whether it looked more aristocratic to wear these or to carry
them with a negligent air; he compromised on the departure platform by
wearing one and carrying the other. The collector-dog trotted up with
the box on his back, and both put in some coppers. They glanced at the
giant clock.

"I wish," she said agitatedly, "that I could skip half an hour of my
life."

"When you get to my age, little missy," remarked Trew, "you won't talk
like that. Speaking personally, I can fairly say that if it wasn't for
these new motors I sh'd like to live to be a 'underd. Now, let's jest
make sure and certain about this train."

"I thought we had done so."

"May as well be on the safe side."

Mr. Trew left her at the bookstall to go on a journey in search of
verification. She observed that he obtained news first from a junior
porter, and worked upwards in the scale, with the evident intention of
obtaining at last corroborative evidence from a director. The girl
turned, and, gazing at the rows of books, found she could not read the
titles clearly. One of the lads of the stall came with a book in his
hand, recommending it to her notice; written by a new chap, he
mentioned confidentially, and highly interesting. Gertie pulled