n8 A GARDEN DIARY 



a-standin 1 there, and a-readin' somethink. And 

 with that I sees " 



I too had seen something ! A flag unmis- 

 takably a Union Jack hanging near the 

 Church, I had overlooked it in my hurry. At 

 sight of that, excitement, combined with the 

 fear of missing my train, overcame my polite- 

 ness, and I flew down the lane in the direction 

 of the station. 



The train was caught, but only by the 

 narrowest margin. I sprang into a carriage, 

 all but shaking hands as I did so with an 

 absolutely unknown old gentleman, who was 

 its only other occupant. Everyone knows the 

 shrinking, the more than maidenly dread of the 

 solitary travelling he, for the unknown travelling 

 she, however harmless the latter may look. On 

 this occasion public interest overcame even that 

 terror. As a river bursts through its banks, so 

 my old gentleman burst into a torrent of re- 

 pressed information. He had just come from 

 London ; he had witnessed the scene at the 

 Mansion House ; he described to me the Lord 

 Mayor coming to the window with a telegram 

 in his hands ; he dilated upon the crowds, the 

 cheering, the flags, the block in the streets ; 

 above all upon the central fact of the situation, 

 which was that he had himself been thereby 

 made twenty minutes late at his board, or 

 meeting, whatever it was. " For the first time 



