"Oh, it's a real pump," he assured her.

"Because I had a suspicion just now; it struck me it might be a sort of
old coaching-inn or something of the kind. I've often been deceived like
that, have gone off to see strange things, and have found a
coaching-inn."

"At least there is the consolation of refreshment at the inn."

"Not a bad idea," she conceded. "It would be a thing to boast about for
the rest of one's life--to have refreshed one's self at the Aldgate
Pump."

Both laughed. The omnibus pursued its way with a steady rumble. They had
turned out of Piccadilly and passed through Waterloo Place, and soon
after through Trafalgar Square into the Strand, where the scene proved
much busier. The pavements were thronged; people were pressing forward
with an appearance of being very much in earnest. A sprinkling of
tourists, clearly self-proclaimed by their holiday air and the style of
their attire and grooming, paraded at leisure or gazed into the
shop-windows. Here and there a young girl, in a picture frock and a big
hat, tripped along daintily, holding her skirt with a touch that
suggested Paris, and swinging her little bag from her free hand.

"Actresses going to rehearsal?" hazarded Wyndham, in response to his
companion's interrogation.

"How charming they are!" she exclaimed. "And they are most of them
frightfully poor. They struggle for years, and then drop out gradually.
Fortunately we women have the gift of living intensely for the day. A
few weeks' engagement, the guinea or two assured for the time being, and
see how we bloom."

"Ah, yes," said Wyndham reflectively; "life for them, as for many
others, is pretty much of a game of roulette. They stake their all on
the table, fortune fluctuates during a few turns of the wheel, and
then--everything is swept away."

"Away, please, with these sad reflections! Why look too searchingly at
things? The world is pleasant; why spoil it by examining it? Why turn
one's eyes willingly away from the good to see the evil?"

"And at any rate the good is as real as the evil," he agreed.

"We must make things contribute to our happiness while we may. All these
crowds of people have no idea that they are there for our entertainment;
they do not know, poor things, that we have willed they should be
masquerading to please us. They have the delusion they are going about
their own affairs, and they see only an ordinary omnibus, full on the
roof--that is, if they cared to lo