nt
Rebecca's." "Wot price Piccadilly an' Regent Street to-night?" "Come
along, my dear; let's get home out of this." "Absolute bosh, my dear
boy, from beginning to end--doing business with 'em every day o' my
life!" And then a hoarse snatch of song: "'They'll never go for
England'--not they! What ho! 'Because England's got the dibs!'"

Suddenly then, above and across the thousand-voiced small talk, came the
trained notes of the voice of the President of the Local Government
Board.

"My friends, the whole story is a most transparent fraud. It's a
shameful hoax. I tell you the thing is physically and morally
impossible. It couldn't have been done in the time; and it is all a lie,
anyhow. I beg to propose a hearty vote of thanks to our chairman
for----"

The crowd had listened attentively enough to the old agitator's comment
on the news. They liked his assurances on that point. But they were in
no mood for ceremonial. Thousands were already straggling across the
grass toward Marble Arch and down to Hyde Park Corner. The speaker's
further words were drowned in a confused hubbub of applause, cheers,
laughter, shouts of "Are we downhearted?" raucous answers in the
negative, and cries of "Never mind the chairman!" and "He's a jolly good
fellow!"

In ten minutes that part of the park seemed to have been stripped naked,
and the few vehicles, tables, and little platforms which had formed the
centre of the Demonstration appeared, like the limbs of a tree suddenly
bereft of foliage, looking curiously small and bare. I am told that
restaurants and refreshment places did an enormous trade during the next
few hours. When the public-houses opened they were besieged, and, in
many cases, closed again after a few hours, sold out.

For my part, I made at once, and without thinking, for Constance Grey's
flat in South Kensington. The crowds in the streets were not only much
larger, but in many ways different from the usual run of Sunday crowds.
The people wore their Sunday clothes, but they had doffed the Sunday
manners and air. There was more of a suggestion of Saturday night in the
streets; the suggestion that a tremendous number of people were going to
enjoy a "spree" of some kind. A kind of noisy hilarity, combined with a
general desire for cigars, drinks, singing, and gaiety, seemed to be
ruling the people.

At the upper end of Sloane Street a German band was blaring out the air
of "The Holy City," and people stood about in grou