e and laugh and weep and sing just as
they did, they have done me serious damage. They have led me away from
those secret chambers in which the King adorns the soul in beautiful
and comely garments, and they have left me a mere wearer of ready-made
clothes.

III

THE HIDDEN GOLD

I was enjoying the very modest but very satisfying pleasures of a ride
in a tramcar when the following adventure befell me. It was a bright,
sunny winter's day; the scenery on either hand was extremely
delightful; and I was cogitating upon the circumstance that so much
felicity could be obtained in return for so small an expenditure. But
my admiration of mountain and river and bush was suddenly and rudely
interrupted. A lady fellow passenger reported that, since entering the
car, three sovereigns had been extracted from her purse. That she had
them when she stepped into the car she knew for certain, for she
remembered seeing them when she opened the purse to pay her fare. She
had taken out the two pennies, inserted the ticket in their place, and
returned the purse to her handbag, which had been lying on the seat
beside her. The inspector had now boarded the car; she had opened her
purse to take out the ticket, and, lo, the gold had gone! It was a
most embarrassing situation. I was ruefully speculating as to how I
should again face my congregation after being shadowed by such a dark
suspicion. When, as abruptly as it had arisen, the mystery happily
cleared. With the most profuse apologies, the lady explained that it
was her birthday; her daughter had that morning presented her with a
new purse; the compartments of this receptacle were more elaborate and
ingenious than she had noticed; and she had found the sovereigns
reposing in a division of the purse which had eluded her previous
observation. There was no more to be said. We wished the poor
beflustered soul many happy returns of the day; she left the car at the
next corner; and I once more abandoned myself to the charms of the
landscape.

Now, this sort of thing is very common. We are continually fancying
that we have been robbed of the precious things we still possess. The
old lady who searches everywhere for the spectacles that adorn her
temples; the clerk who ransacks the office for the pen behind his ear;
and the boy who charges his brother with the theft of the pen-knife
that lurks in the mysterious depths of his own fearful and wonderful
pocket--these are each