_J_. But could you not have travelled by the Tube?
_K_. I did essay the Tube, but found it stuffed.
The atmosphere was solid as a cheese,
And I was loath to penetrate the crowd
Lest it should shove me from behind upon
The electric rail.
_J_. Can you account for that?
_K_. I should ascribe it to the harvest moon,
That wakes romance in Metropolitan breasts,
Drawing our young war-workers out of town
To seek the glamour of the country lanes
Under the silvery beams to lovers dear. O.S.

* * * * *

FORCE OF HABIT.

The fact that George had been eighteen months in Gallipoli, Egypt and
France, without leave home till now, should have warned me. As it was
I merely found myself gasping "Shell-shock!"

We were walking in a crowded thoroughfare, and George was giving all
the officers he met the cheeriest of "Good mornings." It took people
in two ways. Those on leave, blushing to think they had so far
forgotten their B.E.F. habits as to pass a brother-officer without
some recognition, replied hastily by murmuring the conventional "How
are you?" into some innocent civilian's face some yards behind us.
Mere stay-at-homes, on the other hand, surprised into believing that
they ought to know him, stopped and became quite effusive. As far as
I can remember George accepted three invitations to dinner from total