.

To-day there is no more monotonous sight than the pavements of
Piccadilly crowded with people in dingy, sad clothes, with silk tubes
on their heads, their black and gray suits being splashed by the mud
from black hansoms, or by the scatterings of motor-cars driven by
aristocratic-looking mechanics, in which mechanical-looking
aristocrats lounge, darkly clad. Here and there some woman's dress
enlivens the monotony; here a red pillar-box shines in the sun; there,
again, we bless the Post-Office for their red mail-carts, and perhaps
we are strengthened to bear the gloom by the sight of a blue or red
bus.

But our hearts are not in tune with the picture; we feel the lack of
colour, of romance, of everything but money, in the street. Suddenly a
magnificent policeman stops the traffic; there is a sound of jingling
harness, of horses' hoofs beating in unison. There flashes upon us an
escort of Life Guards sparkling in the sun, flashing specks of light
from swords, breastplates, helmets. The little forest of waving
plumes, the raising of hats, the polite murmuring of cheers, warms us.
We feel young, our hearts beat; we feel more healthy, more alive, for
this gleam of colour.

Then an open carriage passes us swiftly as we stand with bared heads.
There is a momentary sight of a man in uniform--a man with a wonderful
face, clever, dignified, kind. And we say, with a catch in our voices:

'THE KING--GOD BLESS HIM!'

THE END

BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD, ENGLAND

* * * * *

Transcriber's note:

Illustration captions in {curly brackets} have been added by the
transcriber for the convenience of the reader.

Hyphenation has been made consistent. Minor errors in punctuation have
been corrected.

The following items were noted by the transcriber:

Page 361--the text reads, "Another thing the women did
was to cut from their bodices all the little strips but
the in the middle of the back, ..." which seems to be
missing the word 'one' between 'the' and 'in'. It has
been added in this etext.

Page 442--the word CUROSY may be an error for CURSORY,
or it may be the pen-name of the quoted writer. However,
as the transcriber was unable to confirm either way, it
has been preserved as printed.

Archaic spelling is preserved as printed. Variable spelling has been
made consist