40 BEGGARS ON HORSEBACK. 



tuous band of mother tourists fed early with their 

 progeny, for we dined alone. It seemed a little 

 unusual when presently, from the windows of the 

 coffee-room, we saw the chambermaid (a tall and 

 handsome lady, with manners that quelled any 

 suggestion of familiarity from us) go forth to the 

 pleasure-ground, and, having seated herself, pro- 

 ceed to tell a convulsingly funny story to the 

 tourists. We should have liked to have heard 

 it, but could catch nothing except an inquiry 

 shrieked by an auditor through the drowning 

 laughter, " Did 'e say ' ]\Ia little duck ' t " which 

 awakened a persecuting curiosity while it deep- 

 ened the mystery. 



We examined the Visitors' Book. No trace of 

 the party was in it, unless it was indirectly hinted 

 at by a cyclist, who, with that happy vein of 

 humour and inventiveness of spelling with which 

 Visitors' Books are so replete, dilated on the 

 " gossopping gardens " of the hotel. Many things 

 were strange about the Griffith Arms. It was 

 full of unseen presences, of suggestions of an 



