First came a flying squadron of children, laughing, terrified, fascinated, screaming, turning their heads as they ran, with a dog or two yelping among them, and a few women drifting sideways along the pavements.

A face of a man, Mabel saw as she glanced in terror upwards, had appeared at the windows opposite, pale and eager--some invalid no doubt dragging himself to see.

One group--a well-dressed man in grey, a couple of women carrying babies, a solemn-faced boy--halted immediately before her on the other side of the railings, all talking, none listening, and these too turned their faces to the road on the left, up which every instant the clamour and trampling grew.

Yet she could not ask.

Her lips moved; but no sound came from them.