258 THE OPEN AIU. 



chalky, ill-favoured, and ill-savoured wretch. At the 

 parting of the roads each went different ways, but she 

 could not help looking back. 



He was a thorough specimen of the leery London 

 mongrel. That hideous leer is so repulsive — one 

 cannot endure it — but it is so common ; you see it on 

 the faces of four-fifths of the ceaseless stream that 

 runs out from the ends of the earth of London into 

 the green sea of the country. It disfigures the faces 

 of the carters who go with the waggons and other 

 vehicles — not nomads, but men in steady employ ; it 

 defaces — absolutely defaces — the workmen who go 

 forth with vans, with timber, with carpenters' work, 

 and the policeman standing at the corners, in London 

 itself particularly. The London leer hangs on their 

 faces. The Mosaic account of the Creation is dis- 

 credited in these days, the last revelation took place 

 at Beckenham ; the Beckenham revelation is superior 

 to Mount Sinai, yet the consideration of that leer 

 might suggest the idea of a fall of man even to an 

 Amcebist. The horribleness of it is in this way, it 

 hints — it does more than hint, it conveys the leerer's 

 decided opinion — that you, whether you may be man 

 or woman, must necessarily be as coarse as himself. 

 Especially he wants to impress that view upon every 

 woman who chances to cross his glance. The fist 

 of Hercules is needed to dash it out of his face. 



