nority hidden beneath gleaming umbrellas on top. Paul had found
the interiors of these vehicles to possess an odour of imperfectly
washed humanity, and he avoided the roof, unless a front seat were
available, because of the existence of that type of roof-traveller who
converts himself into a human fountain by expectorating playfully at
selected intervals. Theatre audiences were on their several ways home,
and as Paul passed by the entrance to a Tube station he found a
considerable crowd seeking to force its way in, a motley crowd
representative of every stratum of society from Whitechapel to Mayfair.
Women wearing opera cloaks and shod in fragile dress-shoes stood
shivering upon the gleaming pavement beside Jewesses from the East-End.
Fur-collared coats were pressed against wet working raiments, white
gloved hands rested upon greasy shoulders. Officers jostled privates,
sailors vied with soldiers in the scrum before the entrance to the
microbic land of tunnels. War is a potent demagogue.

Isolated standard lamps whose blackened tops gave them an odd appearance
of wearing skull caps, broke the gloom of the rain mist at wide
intervals. All shops were shut, apparently. One or two cafes preserved a
ghostly life within their depths, but their sombre illuminations were
suggestive of the Rat Mort. Musicians from theatre orchestras hurried in
the direction of the friendly Tube, instrument cases in hand, and one or
two hardy members of the Overseas forces defied the elements and lounged
about on corners as though this were a summer's evening in Melbourne.
Policemen sheltered in dark porches. Paul walked on, his hands thrust
into his coat pockets and the brim of his hat pulled down. He
experienced no discomfort and was quite contented with the prospect of
walking the remainder of the way home; he determined, however, to light
his pipe and in order to do so he stepped into the recess formed by a
shop door, found his pouch and having loaded his briar was about to
strike a match when he saw a taxi-cab apparently disengaged and
approaching slowly. He stepped out from his shelter, calling to the man,
and collided heavily with a girl wearing a conspicuous white raincoat
and carrying an umbrella.

She slipped and staggered, but Paul caught her in time to save her from
a fall upon the muddy pavement. "I am sincerely sorry," he said with
real solicitude. "I know I must have hurt you."

"Not in the least," she replied in a low tone which