'Ernestine.'
'Who knows you're doing this kind of thing?'
'Ernestine—and you. It's a secret.'
'Well, if I'm the only sane person who knows—it's something of a responsibility.'
'I won't tell you about it if it oppresses you.'
'On the contrary, I insist on your telling me.'
Vida smiled reflectively. 'The mode of procedure strikes one as highly original. It is simple beyond anything in the world. They select an open space at the convergence of several thoroughfares—if possible, near an omnibus centre. For these smaller meetings they don't go to the length of hiring a lorry. Do you know what a lorry is?'
'I regret to say my education in that direction leaves something to be desired.'
'Last week I was equally ignorant. To-day I can tell you all about it. A lorry is a cart or a big van with the top off. But such elegancies are for the parks. In Battersea, you go into some modest little restaurant, and you say, "Will you lend me a chair?" This is a surprise for the Battersea restaurateur.'
'Naturally—poor man!'