“‘I was admiring your flowers,’ I said as he came up. ‘Your irises are wonderful.’
“He looked vaguely at some lupins, then his intent gaze came back to me.
“‘The garden is well known locally,’ he remarked. ‘Are you a member of these parts?’
“‘No,’ I answered, ‘I come from London,’ and it seemed to me his gaze grew more intent.
“‘I am only a bird of passage, too,’ he said easily. ‘Are you just down for the day?’
“I informed him that I had come down to write up the local fête; being young and foolish, I rather think I implied that only the earnest request of the organiser for me in particular had persuaded the editor to dispense with my invaluable services even for a few hours. And all the time his eyes, black and inscrutable, never left my face.
“‘The show is being held in a field about a quarter of a mile farther on,’ he said when I had finished. ‘Good morning.’
“He turned abruptly on his heels and walked slowly away towards the house, leaving me a little annoyed, and with a feeling that not only had I been snubbed, but, worse still, had been seen through. I felt that I had failed to convince him that editors tore their hair and bit their nails when they failed to secure my services; I felt, indeed, just that particular type of ass that one does feel when one has boasted vaingloriously, and been listened to with faintly amused boredom. I know that as I resumed my walk towards the agricultural fête I endeavoured to restore my self-respect by remembering that he was merely a glorified yokel, who probably knew no better.”
The Writer leant back in his chair with a faint smile.
“That awful show still lives in my memory,” he continued after a while. “There were swing boats, and one of those ghastly shows where horses go round and round with a seasick motion and ‘The Blue Bells of Scotland’ emerges without cessation from the bowels of the machine. There were coco-nut shies and people peering through horse-collars to have their photographs taken, and over everything an all-pervading aroma of humanity unsuitably clad in its Sunday best on a warm day. However, the job had to be done, so I bravely plunged into the marquees devoted to the competing vegetables. I listened to the experts talking around me with the idea of getting the correct local colour, but as most of their remarks were incomprehensible, I soon gave that up as a bad job and began looking about me.