She wondered, with a little lump in her throat, how many would have stopped to buy had he been calling instead: "Discovery of new sonnet by Shakespeare.

Extra special." Through swinging doors, she caught glimpses of foul interiors, crowded with men and women released from their toil, taking their evening pleasure.

From coloured posters outside the great theatres and music halls, vulgarity and lewdness leered at her, side by side with announcements that the house was full.

From every roaring corner, scintillating lights flared forth the merits of this public benefactor's whisky, of this other celebrity's beer: it seemed the only message the people cared to hear.

Even among the sirens of the pavement, she noticed that the quiet and merely pretty were hardly heeded.