on the
Boulevard, and I flatter myself that, had I been permitted to appear in
public, my attire would have found immediate favour."

"If," said I, "I remember aright, it consisted of a white bowler, a
morning-coat, golf-breeches, blue silk stockings and cloth-topped
boots."

"That's right," said Berry. "And an alpenstock. I ought really to
have had my cuffs trimmed with skunk," he added wistfully, "but I
thought of it too late."

"I tell you what," said Adele. "We must take some films."

"That's right," said Jill. "I promised Piers we'd send him some
snapshots."

Jonah groaned.

"Surely," he said, "our passport photographs are bad enough."

"The camera," said Berry, "can never lie. Besides, I'm very fond of
your passport portrait. I admit I hadn't previously noticed that your
right ear was so much the larger of the two, but the cast in your left
eye is very beautifully insisted upon. Mine, I must confess, is less
successful. Had I been told that it was a study of the Honorary
Treasurer of the Splodgeworth Goose Club on bail, I should have held it
an excellent likeness. Daphne's is very good. She's wearing that
particularly sweet expression of hers. You can almost hear her saying,
'Mine's a large port.' Apart, they're bad enough, but with both of
them on the same document--well, why we weren't turned back at Boulogne
I shall never know. Boy's, again, is lifelike."

"Shame," said Adele. "He looks all bloated."

"I know he does, sweetheart. But that's his own fault. What's put in
the mouth comes out in the flesh. The camera can never lie. And now
don't choke. It's unmaidenly. And I cannot think of you as a matron.
Let's see. Oh, yes. Films. Anything else?"

"Soap," said Daphne.

"Fountain-pen," said Jill.

"Cards," said Adele.

"Tea," said Daphne.

"Beer-opener," said I.

"Plate and linen," said Berry. "That's nine. Let's go by train."

"Anybody," said Jonah, "would think that we were going into the bush.
If you must have a camera--well, take one. But as for soap and tea and
beer-openers and fountain-pens--oh, you make me tired."

"And me," said Berry unctuously. "A plain man of few words, all this
vulgar mouth-wash about creature comforts----"

It was hardly to be expected that he would get any further....

It was when the storm of indignation was at its height that the
electric light failed.

Four of us breathed the same expletive simultaneously.

Then--

"Lost,"