The effect was magical.  We all of us have our Achilles heel, and—­paradoxically enough—­in the case of the stout young man that heel was his hat.  Superbly built by the only hatter in London who can construct a silk hat that is a silk hat, and freshly ironed by loving hands but a brief hour before at the only shaving-parlour in London where ironing is ironing and not a brutal attack, it was his pride and joy.  To lose it was like losing his trousers.  It made him feel insufficiently clad.  With a passionate cry like that of some wild creature deprived of its young, the erstwhile Berserk released the handle and sprang in pursuit.  At the same moment the traffic moved on again.

The last George saw was a group scene with the stout young man in the middle of it.  The hat had been popped up into the infield, where it had been caught by the messenger boy.  The stout young man was bending over it and stroking it with soothing fingers.  It was too far off for anything to be audible, but he seemed to George to be murmuring words of endearment to it.  Then, placing it on his head, he darted out into the road and George saw him no more.  The audience remained motionless, staring at the spot where the incident had happened.  They would continue to do this till the next policeman came along and moved them on.

With a pleasant wave of farewell, in case any of them might be glancing in his direction, George drew in his body and sat down.

The girl in brown had risen from the floor, if she had ever been there, and was now seated composedly at the further end of the cab.

CHAPTER 4.

“Well, that’s that!” said George.

“I’m so much obliged,” said the girl.

“It was a pleasure,” said George.

He was enabled now to get a closer, more leisurely and much more satisfactory view of this distressed damsel than had been his good fortune up to the present.  Small details which, when he had first caught sight of her, distance had hidden from his view, now presented themselves.  Her eyes, he discovered, which he had supposed brown, were only brown in their general colour-scheme.  They were shot with attractive little flecks of gold, matching perfectly the little streaks gold which the sun, coming out again on one of his flying visits and now shining benignantly once more on the world, revealed in her hair.  Her chin was square and determined, but its resoluteness was contradicted by a dimple and by the pleasant good-humour of the mouth; and a further softening of the face was effected by the nose, which seemed to have started out with the intention of being dignified and aristocratic but had defeated its purpose by tilting very slightly at the tip.  This was a girl who would take chances, but would take them with a smile and laugh when she lost.