118 A GARDEN DIARY 
a-Standin’ 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 Ze, 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 
