'Oh, then, there's plenty of time. When you've had enough of this
kind of thing we can strike off into the quiet streets. If you were
a man, which I'm glad you're not, I should say I was choking for a
glass of beer.'

'Say it, and look for a place where you can quench your thirst.'

'It must be a place, then, where you can come in as well. You don't
drink beer, of course, but we can get lemonade and that kind of
thing. No wonder we get thirsty; look up there.'

Following the direction of his eyes, Nancy saw above the heads of
the multitude a waving dust-canopy, sent up by myriad tramplings on
the sun-scorched streets. Glare of gas illumined it in the
foreground; beyond, it dimmed all radiance like a thin fog.

'We might cut across through Soho,' he pursued, 'and get among the
restaurants. Take my arm again. Only a bit of cross-fighting, and we
shall be in the crowd going the other way. Did you do physics at
school? Remember about the resultant of forces? Now _we_'re a force
tending to the right, and the crowd is a force making for straight
on; to find the--'

His hat was knocked over his eyes, and the statement of the problem
ended in laughter.

With a good deal of difficulty they reached one of the southward
byways; and thenceforth walking was unimpeded.