“My experience,” I said, “has been that in London I am perpetually
expectant of gloomy and mysterious events, but that my life there is
remarkably unromantic and commonplace.”
“You speak almost regretfully. Do you wish for gloomy and mysterious
events in your life?”
“I suppose not. Yet there is a spirit hidden in one which does sigh
plaintively for the strange.”
“Perhaps this time it will be gratified.”