OF A BLANK DAY 81 



faculties (combined with a complete lack of any 

 sign that the river held fish) produced its inevit- 

 able effect. My vigilance relaxed. The lustre 

 of my purism became dimmed. I put on a large 

 Wickham. 



At the first cast a swift took it as it was falling. 

 The force of habit struck I am myself incapable 

 of such an act and after a short contest the 

 misguided bird was brought to hand, unhooked, 

 and returned to the air. The Wickham, dressed 

 on a No. 1 hook, I have always found peculiarly 

 deadly to swifts. This particular specimen, how- 

 ever, proved wholly innocuous to the trout, if 

 trout there were. 



Under such conditions luncheon is doubly 

 welcome. One eats with no sense of time lost. 

 One's enjoyment of food a very proper enjoy- 

 ment is not marred by any anxiety about the 

 river. One lingers over the cigarette that follows 

 and the cigarette that follows it. One does not 

 hurry. There are no fish anywhere at all. One 

 dismisses fish from one's mind and takes one's 

 pleasure in mastication, like a wise man. So I 

 lunched. It was a good lunch, thoughtfully com- 

 bined by a mistress of the art. There was 

 marmalade in it and a pottle (I think it was a 

 pottle) of ripe strawberries, also half a lobster, 

 lettuce, many things. I have seldom had a better 



