from all these
close-packed moving vans and cars and hay-carts, pervaded the wintry
air; a sense of exhilaration, too; a sense of life in all its unrefined,
joyous reality, intense and vigorous, accepting itself unquestioningly,
too sure of the worth of the gift ever to doubt it--even as the hungry
ploughboy does not speculate metaphysically about the fat pork on his
plate, but simply falls thereon and devours it.

"Book-stalls!" cried Lady Betty, "and piled up ever and ever so high.
And look, rusty Wellington boots on the one hand, and rusty tools and
bits of iron on the other."

They stayed a few minutes, and turned over some of the books, as
interesting and varied as those in any more pretentious bookman's
paradise. They both grew selfishly absorbed, each striking out an
individual path, though remembering the other's existence at moments of
extraordinary interest. In the end each became the possessor of a
volume. Wyndham's was a facsimile of the first edition of the "Pilgrim's
Progress," a fattish octavo with the loveliest of wide margins, and the
exact reproduction of the original engravings. Lady Betty's treasure was
an old copy of the Dramatic Poems of Browning. Each paid the same
one-and-sixpence, and as they bore away their prizes they discovered
that each had been inspired by the same motive--of giving the other a
memento of this wonderful day. Laughingly they exchanged their volumes,
and the presentations thus formally carried out, Wyndham took possession
of the Bunyan again in the mere capacity of carrier.

At last a hoarding with a great glare of light on it.

Wyndham let his eye roam over the posters. "The very thing," he cried.
"A fine old-fashioned melodrama!"

"Splendid!" echoed Lady Betty, gazing at the many-coloured scenes that
promised a generous measure of thrills and emotions.

"We shall have a box to ourselves," said Wyndham. "As you see, it is not
so very extravagant. Only there is the problem of dining."

"What healthy little children we are!" she laughed.

"Oh, we must dine," he protested.

"I have faith," she declared. "Our good star has served us till now, it
is not going to desert us. We shall light upon some quaint place
presently."

The confident prediction justified itself, for, later on, they stopped
before a Jewish restaurant that proudly announced itself as "kosher."
And it proved immediately irresistible to the wanderers, who entered
straightway, and found themselves in a