le
more, some new crisis may occur and he will be able to say that he is too
busy to deal with them now.

The Private Secretary knows this and continues to say, "Are you going to
the Lord Mayor's lunch?" The Fish-Friers' man doesn't know it, and crawls
about excitedly on the floor looking for the spectacles under the bed. When
he is well under the bed the public man tells the Private Secretary to ring
up the Bottle-Washers and the Fish-Friers and the PRIME MINISTER and
arrange things somehow, and rushes out of the room. He is hotly pursued by
the valet and the hosier and the hairdresser, but there's a taxi at the
door and with any luck he will now get clear away. In the hall, however,
the cook meets him in order to give notice, and by the time he has dealt
with that crisis the Private Secretary has had three wrong numbers and
given it up, and the Fish-Friers' man has bumped his head and given it up.
They give chase together and catch the public man just as he is escaping
from the front-door. The Private Secretary starts again about the Lord
Mayor's lunch, and the Fish-Friers' man starts again about the position.

The public man knows now that he is done, so he drives them into the taxi
and says he will talk to them on the way to the PRIME MINISTER. The taxi
dashes off, leaving the hosier and the hairdresser and the valet wringing
their hands in the hall.

The only thing the public man can do now is to invent a new crisis for the
Private Secretary, who is still saying in a cold dispassionate voice, "Are
you going to the Lord Mayor's lunch?"

So he thinks of one of the letters he has hidden in his dressing-gown and
tells the Private Secretary that he must have that letter for the
Bottle-Washers' meeting. Then he stops the taxi at a place where there is
no Underground and no 'bus, and pushes the Private Secretary out. He has
disposed of the Private Secretary for the day.

But the Fish-Friers' man's throat is practically clear by now and he gets
to work at once. The public man pays no attention but prepares in his mind
his opening sentences to the PRIME MINISTER. In the Park he sees two other
public men walking and he takes them into the cab. Each of them has
discovered some entirely new smells and starts talking about them at once
very fast. The public man promises to go and try them all immediately. When
he gets to the PRIME MINISTER'S he rings up and cancels the Fish-Friers and
the Bottle-Washers. When he has done th