This story is equalised by one Herbert Hampton told me. He was at Beaconsfield, in Buckinghamshire, and wanted a couple of rooms for a week to rest and do a little sketching; so seeing “Apartments” up at a tiny cottage, he went in. It was a very simple place, clean and tidy, but quite a workman’s home.
The woman asked him two guineas a week. Considering the accommodation offered, he thought the price ridiculous.
“Come, come, I am not a millionaire,” he said.
She looked at him, paused, and replied:
“I thought you were a gentleman.”
Sometimes one has utterly unexpected annoyances. Here is an instance of such in my own experience. One day quite lately I was rung up on the telephone, and in the most rude and insulting terms was upbraided for having knocked off a woman’s hat in Regent Street. As I had not been in Regent Street that day, and never knocked off a woman’s hat in my life, I was naturally annoyed. The telephone rang again and again with the same impertinent remarks.
This was only the beginning of much trouble. Then came letters, blackmail, I suppose one might call them, and constant telephonic communications and general annoyance.