her side of it was the left
luggage office. Four policemen saw to it that no person crossed to the
other side except on business.

I began crossing.

"Not that side," said Robert, "unless you want the left luggage."

"The left luggage," I explained, "is my one desire."

I crossed.

The clerk was unusually prompt.

"What's yours?" he said.

"Since you ask," I replied, "I could do with a small stout; or,
alternatively, a sherry and bitters."

He kept silence, but with a touch of urgency in it. It is hard to
temporize when confronted with a businesslike silence. Yet my view of
the drive was worth fighting for.

"I might leave my watch," I continued after a brief hesitation, "but the
fact is I left it last week with my only godson. Have you a godson? You
know what they are--always wanting something."

"Come along, now," said the official brusquely. Robert, too, was
becoming restive.

"Very well; I will deposit my hat. You will be careful with it, won't
you?"

He accepted my hat untenderly.

"What name?"

"George," I said; "but they call me 'Winkles' at home."

He was a man not easily moved. He wrote down "George" without hesitation
on a bit of pink paper and asked for twopence as he gave it to me.

Just then, to my great relief, the Boat Express arrived. I searched in
all my pockets and at last found half-a-sovereign.

I told you he was a man not easily moved. He gave me nine-and-tenpence
without a word, but with more halfpennies than was quite nice.

There was a stir in the crowd. I must hang on yet a little, or give it
up, or stand six deep. I cannot stand standing six deep. But it is the
duty of every citizen to welcome Personages.

Then I bethought me of my pink paper.

I summoned the man who was not easily moved and presented it. "The
deposit," I explained, "was a hat--a felt hat--I cannot be sure of the
size, but at a guess I should put it somewhere between 7 and 8."

But he had already retrieved it.

I took it and replaced it on my head as I turned in the nick of time to
take it off to the Personage. He gave me a very sweet smile, the memory
of which I cherish so fondly that I am loth to attribute it to the
fashionable dent I subsequently discovered in my bowler.

* * * * *

In the present restriction of Sport we sympathize with that section of
the Press which makes it a speciality. However, there are outlets; and
one of our Sporting contemporaries has bu