“Walter is a ray of sunshine,” answered Mr. Blades. “He has a nature none can resist, and is the most popular man in the office. He is a most humorous man and will make you die of laughing. He has two brothers on the professional stage, and he is for all practical purposes a professional actor himself; but he thinks two brothers on the regular stage are enough. He plays parts in public, however, and is a comedian who has nothing left to learn. If he chokes you off this nonsense about the stage, it will be a good thing done.” I could hardly believe my ears, for Mr. Blades described just such a man as I hungered to know. Whether he would be interested in an utter beginner was, of course, only too doubtful; but, as Mr. Blades said that he was like a ray of sunshine, I hoped with a great hope that he would shine on me a little if he had time. My impatience for Monday to come was so extreme that during Sunday I took the opportunity to go down to Trafalgar Square and look at the outside of our West-End Branch. Trafalgar Square is naturally too well known to need any lengthened description from me; but I may mention that the National Gallery stands on one side, and our West-End Branch on the other, with Nelson’s Monument between them. Nothing else really matters. Our premises were stately without ostentation, and richly but not gaudily decorated. The entrance was hidden under a shutter of iron, and the windows were also concealed in the same manner. The building ascended to some rather striking architectural details at the top and was, upon the whole, an imposing pile, though without the gloomy grandeur of the Head Office in Threadneedle Street, E.C.