According to plan we disencumber ourselves of packages and release the handbag. We change a half-crown and before fastening up the case again, we remember to pocket the Coin we propose to drop into the nearest inviting tin. We congratulate ourselves, too, on the fact that the paper flag we shall nonchalantly accept will please the sick child we are visiting.
One cannot easily think of something different to take each day, and today there is nothing in the case that has surprise value. A gay and shapely flag to adorn a pyjama jacket seems an ideal solution to the problem of the moment.
In the meantime, however, the situation has changed. During the rainy progress to the earlier appointment there were dozens of encounters with flag-sellers. They were as regularly spaced as lamp-posts. Now
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.