k of sliding
home on it."

Well, of course it had to be done. I took my hat and staggered out. On
an ordinary cool day it is about half-a-mile to the fishmonger; to-day
it was about two miles-and-a-quarter. I arrived exhausted, and with
only just strength enough to kneel down and press my forehead against
the large block of ice in the middle of the shop, round which the
lobsters nestled.

"Here, you mustn't do that," said the fishmonger, waving me away.

I got up, slightly refreshed.

"I want," I said, "some----" and then a thought occurred to me.

After all, _did_ fishmongers sell ice? Probably the large block in
front of me was just a trade sign like the coloured bottles at the
chemist's. Suppose I said to a Fellow of the Pharmaceutical Society,
"I want some of that green stuff in the window," he would only laugh.
The tactful thing to do would be to buy a pint or two of laudanum
first, and _then_, having established pleasant relations, ask him as a
friend to lend me his green bottle for a bit.

So I said to the fishmonger, "I want some--some nice lobsters."

"How many would you like?"

"One," I said.

We selected a nice one between us, and he wrapped a piece of _Daily
Mail_ round it, leaving only the whiskers visible, and gave it to me.
The ice being now broken--I mean the ice being now--well, you see what
I mean--I was now in a position to ask for some of his ice.

"I wonder if you could let me have a little piece of your ice," I
ventured.

"How much ice do you want?" he said promptly.

"Sixpennyworth," I said, not knowing a bit how much it would be, but
feeling that Celia's threepennyworth sounded rather mean.

"Six of ice, Bill," he shouted to an inferior at the back, and
Bill tottered up with a block about the size of one of the lions in
Trafalgar Square. He wrapped a piece of _Daily News_ round it and gave
it to me.

"Is that all?" asked the fishmonger.

"That is all," I said faintly; and, with Algernon, the overwhiskered
crustacean, firmly clutched in the right hand and Stonehenge supported
on the palm of the left hand, I retired.

The flat seemed a very long way away, but having bought twice as much
ice as I wanted, and an entirely unnecessary lobster, I was not going
to waste still more money in taxis. Hot though it was, I would walk.

For some miles all went well. Then the ice began to drip through the
paper, and in a little while the underneath part of _The Daily News_
had disappeared