Page:Percival Lowell - an afterglow.djvu/80

Percival Lowell

Here I am—for lunch with Sir Robert Ball at the Observatory and for dinner at Kings'. I came within an ace of not getting here. The only Sunday train which would get me down in time was the 9:50 from Liverpool Street. I had thought as I thought of everything I should need—the sacred toothbrush, the indispensable night clothes and so forth and had reached the station with abundance of time, when, on going toward the ticket wicket, I discovered to my horror that I had left both my note and my coin pocketbooks behind. I had not time to return for them and no later train would do. On the hope that one of them might have crept into my valise, I went through it, but fruitlessly,—discovering only my discarded pocketbook with American bills. This the kindly porter said would not do. Next it, however, I spied a metal purse into which I had put, in Boston preparatory to France, some French gold. Could I change this? The porter said there was an exchange in the station which would close soon. We went. Alas, it had closed already. As a last resort I tried the ticket seller and prevailed upon him, for an exchange consideration, to accept my gold. And my ticket there and back was bought. Then I settled myself in my railway carriage and arrived safely—but still a pauper. Gold and paper everywhere about my person and belongings but not an ounce 60