. 'I only want one of those little Japanese
baskets which you have in a corner of your window, marked, I believe,
twopence each--or, possibly, they may be two shillings?' I said in a
shaky voice. 'No, sir, quite right--they are twopence each,' he
replied, to my great relief; for I had begun to suspect they might be
two guineas. 'Will you do me the favour to step this way?' While
following at his side, I asked myself whether, at the end of my
travels, I should ever be able to find my way back again; so
bewildering were the ramifications through which we passed. Presently
he handed me over to another nobleman, who, having learned my
pleasure (which by this time had developed rather painful
tendencies), graciously escorted me to the further end of a long
counter, and begged me to take a chair. A stylishly-dressed young
lady sailed towards us behind the counter. 'I shall feel extremely
obliged,' said the nobleman to her, 'If you will be so good as to
request Miss Doubleyou to step down, and serve this gentleman. 'Yes,
sir,' answered the young lady, as she vanished somewhere behind me;
for my eyes were now following the retreating figure of the nobleman.
After a little while I heard a pattering of feet, and, looking round,
beheld some tokens of a young lady descending a spiral staircase. She
was behind the counter the next moment and then I made a discovery.
It was the same young lady who had served me with the farthing's
worth of pins years before! I recognised her at once, and I suspect
the recognition was mutual. But, of course, she never betrayed the
least emotion.'And what article may I have the pleasure to serve you
with?' she asked, m the still small voice of a duchess. There was a
gulping sensation in my throat as I answered, 'You have, I believe,
in one corner of one of your windows a number of little Japanese
baskets, marked, if my eyes did not deceive me, twopence each. (The
graceful nod of her head was reassuring.) I should be very glad to
become the possessor of one of those articles.' 'Certainly, sir, I'll
bring it to you,' she answered. 'Oh, thank you!' I returned,
delighted at the prospect; and so she departed on her errand of
mercy.

"Whether, by the rules of the establishment, it was necessary for her
to obtain a written permission from each of those three noblemen to
pass over their territory and invade the shop window, or whether she
lost herself in the numerous windings and turnings through which I
had