ENGLAND AND WALES 215 



Saturday morning. I should not have to write or 

 edit until Sunday night. Of course I would go. I 

 had a bath and breakfast, and was at Eaton Place 

 punctually, to the vague astonishment of a loitering 

 policeman, whose " Good morning ! " was suspicious 

 though sleepy. All went well for three or four 

 hours; but there was trouble on the Portsmouth 

 Road. One of the pedals of my bicycle dropped 

 off, and the nuts could not be found. The energetic 

 lady was nothing daunted. There was a smithy 

 nine miles on, she said. I could easily manage that 

 distance with one pedal. I did manage it, though 

 not easily, as the rain was drenching and the wind 

 adverse ; and was very glad to find that the task of 

 repairing a bicycle was more than the village black- 

 smith could undertake. We went the rest of the 

 way by train. Arrived, naturally I thought that 

 the lack of the possibility of exchanging my sodden 

 clothes for other garments of my own would permit, 

 and even necessitate, repose; but that was wrong. 

 The energetic lady mentioned that her son-in-law- 

 was staying there. When he came in he would 

 lend me clothes. He did, I was sorry to say. The 

 portmanteau, of course, came in time to enable me 

 to be present at dinner. Near the end of the meal, 

 the hostess, beside whom I sat, announced that she 

 had a pleasant surprise for me. She was not much 

 of a fisher herself, she said; but she had noticed 

 that I had been a little disappointed with the Stour 

 last time I had been down. Well, she wasn't 

 astonished. There were only roach, and dace, and 



