ok at us. To them what more
commonplace than a journey on an omnibus from Hyde Park Corner to
Aldgate Pump? Yet, to us, what a whimsical universe it is!"

The omnibus rattled along with a not unpleasing vibration. They passed
through the heart of the City, swept alongside St. Paul's, and then the
humour of country cousins took possession of them. They pretended to be
roused to excitement by all these guide-book regions and monuments,
affected to be seeing them for the first time and to be recognising them
from the engravings. Down Leadenhall Street they clattered at last, and
presently to their surprise the conductor's head appeared above the
stairway with the announcement of "Aldgate Pump, sir."

They descended. The omnibus passed on, and they stood hesitating, a
little lost, but greatly amused.

"Here it is!" she exclaimed. "And a street arab in the very act of
pumping! Why, it's real water."

They contemplated it for a moment or two. "Well, what do you think of
it?" he asked.

"Thrilling," she admitted. "All pumps are interesting--in these days of
universal taps. But look at those warehouses opposite, beyond the
hoarding. Aren't they fascinating?"

"I believe the river lies beyond." Probably no existence had been less
intertwined with the City of London than his, but he remembered the
immediate neighbourhood pretty well from ancient wanderings, and he told
her as an interesting fact that Mark Lane and Mincing Lane lay
thereabouts.

"I think I have heard of them." Her face lighted with the pleasure of
recognition. "Indeed, I'm sure I've seen them mentioned in the
newspapers."

He tried to plumb her knowledge, but found no deeps. She knitted her
brows prettily, or at least he imagined she did, under her veil. "A sort
of Latin Quarter--an artist's colony?" she hazarded. "No, wait a bit,
there was a wealthy, humdrum sort of man I once met, and everybody
whispered he came out of Mincing Lane. He was not artistic. I give it
up."

"He imported tea?"

"That's not unlikely," she agreed.

"That's what Mincing Lane is for. And Mark Lane is for corn and
produce."

"How useful! What a good world it is! I think I like this part."

"Beyond is Eastcheap, famous for groceries, and beyond that again the
water-side where all these things are landed."

"Let us come to Eastcheap." She was eager to see all the places he had
enumerated, so he took her through the famous side-streets.

"I certainly do like this part of