Love stories; Nobility -- Great Britain -- Fiction; Switzerland -- Fiction
Not knowing what to do he put on his hat and, walking across the station
yard, took his stand by a gateway pillar and watched the tide of London
life roll by. There he remained for nearly an hour, since the strange
sight fascinated him who had never been in town before, the object of
some attention from a policeman, although of this he was unaware. Also
some rather odd ladies spoke to him from time to time which he thought
kind of them, although they smelt so peculiar and seemed to have paint
upon their faces. In answer to the inquiries of two of them as to his
health he told them that he was very well. Also he agreed cordially
with a third as to the extreme fineness of the night, and assured a
fourth that he had no wish to take a walk as he was shortly going to
bed, a statement which caused her to break into uncalled-for laughter.
It was at this point that the doubting policeman suggested that he
should move on.
“Where to?” asked Godfrey of that officer of the law.
“To ’ell if you like,” he replied. Then struck with
curiosity, he inquired, “Where do you want to go to? This pillar
ain’t a leaning post.”
Godfrey considered the matter and said with the verve of slight
intoxication:
“Only two places appeal to me at present, heaven (not hell as you
suggested), and Grosvenor Square. Perhaps, however, they are the same;
at any rate, there is an angel in both of them.”
The policeman stared at him but could find no fault with the perfect
sobriety of his appearance.
“Young luny, I suspect,” he muttered to himself, then said aloud:
“Well, the Strand doesn’t lead to ’eaven so far as I have
noticed, rather t’other way indeed. But if you want Grosvenor Square,
it’s over there,” and he waved his hand vaguely towards the west.
“Thank you,” said Godfrey, taking off his hat with much politeness.
“If that is so, I will leave heaven to itself for the present and
content myself with Grosvenor Square.”
Off he started in the direction indicated, and, as it seemed to him,
walked for many miles through a long and bewildering series of
brilliant streets, continually seeking new information as to his goal.
The end of it was that at about a quarter to eleven he found himself
somewhere in the neighbourhood of the Edgware Road, utterly stranded as
it were, since his mind seemed incapable of appreciating further
indications of locality.
“Look here, young man,” said a breezy costermonger to whom he had
appealed, “I think you had better take a ’ansom for the ’orse
will know more about London than you seem to do. There’s one
’andy.”
“That is an idea,” said Godfrey, and entered the cab, giving the
address of Grosvenor Square.
“What number?” asked the driver.
“I don’t know,” replied Godfrey, “the Ball, Grosvenor
Square.”
Off they went, and in due course, reaching the square, drove round it
until they came to a great house where there were signs of festivity in
the shape of an awning above the entrance and a carpet on the pavement.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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