I felt them too.
"Yes," I said, "they're first-rate."
I laid them on one side.
"Very well," I said, gathering the rest into a bunch, "see that all those go back with my compliments, best thanks and regrets for the delay. I'll keep these three a day or so longer for patterns."
Did I say that all this happened last year? It did.
Yesterday I had another borrowed-handkerchief parade and found forty-three. The spectacle was not without its pathos. F.W.H. now had a lot of holes; so had E.F. and M.L.K. But of a softness still!
All the old friends were there too, in spite of what I had directed.
"I thought these were to have gone back," I said. "Didn't I say so?"
"Yes; but—"
"But what?"