"You can't pass."
What! I couldn't pass; and why? The explanation began:
"Your description is not on the passport."
"My passport is a Foreign-Office passport"
"Your passport is an old one."
"It is not a year old; it is legally valid."
"It has not been endorsed at the Austrian Embassy in Paris."
"You are mistaken: it has."
"It has not the blank stamp on it."
"An omission on the part of the embassy; you can see, besides, that it has the visa of the other foreign legations. I have just passed through the Canton of Basle, the Grand-duchy of Baden, the Kingdom of Wurtemberg, the whole of Bavaria, and I have not met with the smallest difficulty. I had merely to declare my name, and my passport was not even opened."