The vast majority who live here must fall back for diversion on other things, their work, their church, their family duties, or their vices. I am satisfied that under such conditions sex plays a far more vital part in cities of this description than almost anywhere else. For, although the streets be dull and the duties of life commonplace, sex and the mysteries of temperament weave their spells quite as effectively here as elsewhere, if not more so. In fact, denied the more varied outlets of a more interesting world, humanity falls back almost exclusively on sex. Women and men, or rather boys and girls (for most of the grown women and men had a drudgy, disillusioned, wearied look), went by each other glancing and smiling. They were alert to be entertained by each other, and while I saw little that I would call beauty in the women, or charm and smartness in the men, nevertheless I could understand how the standards of New York and Paris might not necessarily prevail here. Clothes may not fit, fashion may find no suggestion of its dictates, but after all, underneath, the lure of temperament and of beauty is the same. And so these same murky streets may burn with a rich passional life of their own. I left Oldham finally in the dark and in a driving rain, but not without a sense of the sturdy vigor of the place, keen if drab. CHAPTER XIX CANTERBURY It was not so long after this that I journeyed southward. My plan was to leave London two days ahead of Barfleur, visit Canterbury and Dover, and meet with him there to travel to Paris together, and the Riviera. From the Riviera I was to go on to Rome and he was to return to England.