"Hadn't you better run home as quick as may be?" James suggested.
"I can't," said Emanuel.
"Why not?"
"I've got no hat, and I'm all wet. And everybody in Oldcastle-road will see me. Can you lend me a hat and coat?"
And all the while he was steadily baptising the gravel.
Uncle James's head disappeared for a moment, and then he threw out of the window a stiff yellow mackintosh of great age. It was his rent-collecting mackintosh. It had the excellent quality of matching the chamois gloves.
Emanuel thankfully took it. "And what about a cap or something?" he plaintively asked.
"Tak' this," said Uncle James, with remarkable generosity whipping the Turkish cap from his own head, and handing it to Emanuel.
Emanuel hesitated, then accepted; and, thus uniquely attired, sped away, still baptising.
At tea (tea proper) James recounted this episode to a somewhat taciturn and preoccupied Helen.