I have to tell an unvarnished tale of real and recent life in London.
When the absence of impulsive benevolence and public virtue is so
often insisted upon it is my duty to put the following facts on
record.
It was, as it now always is, a wet day. The humidity not only
descended from a pitiless sky, but ascended from the cruel pavements
which cover the stony heart of that inexorable stepmother, London.
Need I say that under these conditions no cabs were obtainable? In
other words it was one of those days, so common of late, when other
people engage the cabs first. They were plentiful enough, full. One
could have been run over and killed by them twenty times between
Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus, but all teemed with selfish
life. Men of ferocious concentration and women detestable in their
purposefulness were to be seen through the passing windows. It was a
day on which no one ever got out of a cab at all, except to tell it
to wait. No flag was ever up. Since the blessing of peace began to be
ours these days have been the rule.
Not only were the cabs all taken and reserved till to-morrow, but the
'buses were overcrowded too. A line of swaying men, steaming from the
deluge, intervened in every 'bus between two rows of seated women,
also steaming. It was a day on which the conductors and conductresses
were always ringing the bell three times.
There was also (for we are very thorough in England) a strike on the
Tube and the Underground.
Having to get to Harley Street, I walked up Regent Street, doing
my best to shelter beneath an umbrella, and (being a believer in
miracles) turning my head back at every other step in the hope that a
cab with its flag up might suddenly materialise; but hoping against
hope. It was miserable, it was depressing, and it was really rather
shameful: by the year 1919 A.D. (I thought) more should have been
achieved by boastful mankind in the direction of weather control.
And then the strange thing happened which it is my purpose and pride
to relate. A taxi drew up beside me and I was hailed by its occupant.
In a novel the hailing voice would be that of a lady or a Caliph
_incog._, and it would lure me to adventure or romance. But this was
desperately real damp beastly normal life, and the speaker was merely
a man like myself.
"Hullo!" he said, calling me by name, and following the salutation by
the most grateful and comforting words that the human tongue could at
that moment utter.
Every one has seen the Confession Albums, where complacent or polite
visitors are asked to state what in their opinion is the most
beautiful this and that and the other, always including "the most
beautiful form of words." Serious people quote from DANTE or KEATS or
SHAKSPEARE; flippant persons write "Not guilty" or "Will you have it
in notes or cash?" or "This way to the exit." Henceforth I shall be in
no doubt as to my own reply. I shall set down the words used by this
amazing god in the machine, this prince among all princely bolts from
the blue. "Hullo," he said, "let me give you a lift."
I could have sobbed with joy as I entered the cab--perhaps I did sob
with joy--and heard him telling the driver the number in Harley Street
for which I was bound.
That is the story--true and rare. How could I refrain from telling
it when impulsive benevolence and public virtue are so rare? It was
my duty.
* * * * *
[Illustration: MODERN INVENTION APPLIED TO THE CLASSICS. _Damacles
(under the hanging sword, to his host)._ "DELIGHTFUL WEATHER WE'RE
HAVING FOR THE TIME OF YEAR--WHAT?"]
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